Nathan Buckley was awarded coach of the year by his peers during the week, and nothing happened on grand final day to diminish this accolade.
In fact had it not been for two clangers – one by the Collingwood runner and the other an umpiring non-decision – he would have been holding the premiership cup aloft with Scott Pendlebury, a remarkable feat considering the club finished 13th last year.
A favourable draw that required them to play only one final-eight side twice (Richmond) during the home-and-away season and the fact that they won only one of those eight games should not detract from the Magpies’ performance in the finals, where they beat two quality teams in Greater Western Sydney and Richmond and lost narrowly to West Coast Eagles on two occasions.
The question is: did Collingwood overachieve? Although injuries are cited as a huge problem for the club, 16 players played 20-plus games, with one-third of the players playing 26 games for the year. The club did blood seven new players in 2018, and of these Jaidyn Stephenson, recipient of the rising star award, and mature-age rookie Brody Mihocek showed the most promise, while Brayden Sier seems to have found a permanent spot in the team.
The jury is still out on Flynn Appleby, Jack Madgen and Nathan Murphy, while Sam Murray appears a lost cause. In addition, the rebirth of Chris Mayne as a contributor added to the depth of the club to such an extent that the Magpies VFL side made the finals.
(Ryan Pierse/AFL Media/Getty Images)
However, the club still relies heavily on its leading two current top-100 game players, Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom. The two other top-100 game players on the list are Tyson Goldsack and Jarryd Blair, and neither will play a big part in the future of the team.
Goldsack, who made an amazing recovery from a serious knee operation to rejoin the team and play his part in the club’s finals performances, is at best a spare-part player who has signed on for one more year and gives his all whether playing in attack or defence. He came into the team as a replacement for an injured player and his status has not changed much, as I do not consider him in Collingwood’s best 22.
Blair will no longer play a big part in the club and is unlikely to be at Collingwood next year. Also likely to be missing next year is the injury-prone Darcy Moore, who appears to have a lot of talent if he can get onto the park consistently to display his skills.
Brodie Grundy, Jordan De Goey and Adam Treloar are exceptional talents and hopefully are future champions of the club. They are ably backed up by the veteran imports from other clubs, including Levi Greenwood, the high-flying Jeremy Howe, Travis Varcoe and Lynden Dunn, plus next year’s wild card, Mason Cox.
Will Cox continue his amazing improvement next season and become a major contributor for the club? Will Matthew Scharenberg, Jamie Elliott and Daniel Wells make successful comebacks and also become major contributors?
Answer these questions in the positive and you have a team capable of making its mark again next year.
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