Should Collingwood trade Travis Cloke?

Power forward is the position in the AFL that is most commonly spoken of as a ‘commodity’. When the Bulldogs traded for Tom Boyd last offseason, all 200 centimetres and 104 kilograms of him, they weren’t just getting a talented football player, they were getting a ‘valuable commodity’.

There’s just something mythical about a tall person who can kick a lot of goals.

Following Jason Dunstall’s comments On the Couch suggesting he should be traded, Travis Cloke has become the commodity du jour.

In 2011, Cloke belonged in the same elite commodity discussion as Lance Franklin, Josh Kennedy, Jack Riewoldt and company. Collingwood’s number 32 kicked 69 goals that season, second only to Buddy in the Coleman count. For the second year in a row he led the league in contested marks, and it wasn’t even close (Cloke took 161 contested marks across 2010 and 2011 – James Podsiadly was second in that time with 101).

Cloke is an old-school forward – there’s no Riewoldt bounce, no Taylor Walker swagger and no Jeremy Cameron deftness to his play. Cloke succeeds simply because he’s a big, scary human being. He’s the league’s most imposing figure in one-on-one grappling contests of pure strength. He’s still one of the best contested marks in the competition, a physical freak with the brawn of the Hulk and the hands of Spider-Man, with an unparalleled ability to clunk marks that simply shouldn’t be.

A creature of the modern game, Cloke is an aerobic beast, and after a down 2014 his Nick Riewoldt impression returned this year, running opposition defenders ragged up and down the ground.

That’s the good. The bad is that he makes a weekly mockery of the fundamental skill of the game he’s paid almost a million dollars a year to play. It’s a pet love of commentators to lament how bad goal-kicking will eventually cost a team on the big stage. Cloke is living proof of the ramifications, because his two point-blank misses on the verge of half-time in the 2010 grand final effectively cost Collingwood the chance to put the game on ice.

His run-up is too rigid, he leans back on his kicks, he holds the ball much too far to the left and his body weight transference is an anatomical catastrophe. 2016 will be Cloke’s 12th season in the AFL – this isn’t going to get better. Cloke’s dagger is going to be eternally blunt.

In discussions of ‘most overrated player in the AFL’, Cloke’s name seems to be the one that pops up most frequently. The argument is almost too easy to make – he’s only kicked more than 40 goals in three of his 11 seasons, and his gaudy goal tallies from 2011-2013 can be somewhat attributed to the service he received from a midfield littered with All-Australians.

The argument for trading Cloke is that his perceived worth outweighs his actual output. He’s 28 and starting to get injured, so it might be savvy to trade him now while his value is still high. Dunstall argued that the Pies are three years away from being contenders, and by that stage Cloke would be on the downturn of his career.

The glorification of the power forward is becoming antiquated. If Geelong winning the premiership the year after Gary Ablett Jr departed was a testament to how one man does not make a midfield, then Hawthorn’s post-Lance Franklin flag last season was seemingly the forward line equivalent.

On paper, given that his value and importance will likely decline, it makes sense to trade Cloke for high draft picks that will be a part of the next Magpie contender. But football teams aren’t made on paper.

Pundits have been so obsessed with calling Cloke overrated that he’s become underappreciated in the process (this is the ‘Josh Fraser Theory’). His best is as good as any forward in the game (Richmond fans will not forget Cloke taking six contested marks, kicking seven goals and beating them by himself in 2013) and while it doesn’t happen often enough, he contributes plenty around the ground to be valuable when he’s not hitting the scoreboard.

The value of Cloke has never been his bags of goals – it’s been in his ability to be the link between defence and attack, clunking marks and crushing contests in the awkward black hole on the wing between the arcs.

While the Hawks could compensate for the loss of Franklin, Collingwood cannot mitigate the loss of Cloke – at least not yet. Hawthorn lost a star but Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli, Luke Breust and Jack Gunston were a nice cloud to fall on. Alex Fasolo, Jarryd Blair, the perpetually injured Ben Reid and a teenage Darcy Moore do not stack up in comparison. It’s easy to focus on how good Collingwood’s attack sans Cloke looked against Geelong last Friday night. But it’s hard to forget how bad and aimless they looked without him in kicking seven goals total in a loss to Melbourne a month ago.

Dunstall’s argument is built on the idea that Collingwood is a few years away from contention. As Ryan Buckland has alluded to – this might not be the case. Young teams like the Bulldogs and Adelaide have made rapid rises up the ladder, and there’s no reason why Collingwood can’t do the same next season. The Pies’ best has held up against the cream of the crop, and history suggests that their abysmal record in close games (0-5 in games decided by less than 12 points) will regress to the mean next year.

Scott Pendlebury, Travis Varcoe, Ben Reid, Steele Sidebottom, Alan Toovey, Nathan Brown and Levi Greenwood are all in their prime ages and Dane Swan still has something to give – this is not a clear cut youth movement. The Pies are going to be competitive next year, and Travis Cloke can be decisive in that.

Collingwood is a strong contested ball team (5th in the league) and they win the clearances (6th) and the territory battle (7th in inside 50s). Their problem is that they butcher the ball, ranking 14th in effective disposal percentage after ranking 17th last year. This is not a team that is going to be using precise ball movement and searing passes to find avenues to goal in the immediate future.

Cloke is the antidote for that, the temporary solution for Collingwood’s Taylor Adams-ness. He is the bridge – the player that can compensate for average delivery with his elite marking ability in the contest. Cloke would be valuable for any team in the league, but especially for a team whose foot skills are far from ideal.

Collingwood has been shrouded in ambiguity ever since Nathan Buckley arrived in 2012. The results since then have been confusing, with logical processes giving way to underwhelming outcomes.

The Cultural Renovation and clear-out of Mick’s Boys made sense, but it’s yet to reap dividends. The jury is still out though – Buckley’s Magpies live in shades of grey. However, the decision to keep Travis Cloke seems to be fairly black and white.