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Opinion

Fairy tales don't happen at Collingwood, they need miracles

Roar Guru
16th August, 2020
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Roar Guru
16th August, 2020
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People will cite Collingwood’s latest injury run as a major contributor to their loss of form and cohesion.
Or they might cite the AFL’s farcical scheduling as they try to make this season work in the Covid-riddled world – four games in four states in 14 days.

But there are bigger problems afoot at Collingwood – problems that were manifesting last year, and are now in bloom.
Collingwood has had a total breakdown in system.

We’ve seen it before: from 2014 – 2017 we had Collingwood teams that were highly spirited, but regularly made poor decisions, committed numerous skill errors, bombed haphazardly forward, and had an absence of interconnectivity between defence, midfield, and the forward line (not to mention often within their own strata).

You can’t even say what we’re seeing now is reminiscent of those times.

It’s identical – identical of years Collingwood finished 11th, 12th, 12th, and 13th.

And while injuries and fixturing may have exacerbated issues, what we’re also seeing is a vastly unbalanced list that is constantly juggled to try and find solutions and, in those solutions, find synergy, but which only splutter, briefly flare to life, then cough back into a stall.

We’re also seeing evidence of a list build that hasn’t worked and is now showcasing in so many different ways its vulnerability.

Coming out of the 2012–13, Collingwood embarked on an attempt to rejuvenate their list, trading out or releasing 2010 premiership heroes during an era that the two new expansion teams monopolised the best young talent, which subsequently compromised several drafts.

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Scott Pendlebury of the Magpies celebrates a win

(Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Here’s an example: in 2010, West Coast finished last, and Richmond second-last. In the draft, West Coast got pick 4, and Richmond got pick 6.

Then factor in all the top young talent those two clubs signed prior to the draft. This is not to condemn the system, but merely to offer context of the landscape at that time.

Misses from the 2012 Draft (which Collingwood traded into) with Ben Kennedy (pick 19), Tim Broomhead (pick 20), and Jackson Ramsey (pick 38), and from the 2013 Draft Matthew Scharenberg (pick 6), and Nathan Freeman (pick 10), as well as free agents who failed to come on such as Clinton Young and Jordan Russell (among others) left a hole in personnel.

The two genuine hits coming out of that time were Brodie Grundy and Taylor Adams.

There is a sense that Collingwood tried to remedy the misses by overpaying on trades – Adam Treloar ultimately cost two pick 7s; and James Aish cost two second rounders. They also looked laterally to opposition lists, such as taking Tony Armstrong as a delisted free agent, and then trading for Sam Murray.

The Swans had picked up Murray with pick 66 in the rookie draft. Collingwood then traded a future second-rounder in exchange for him, a future third-rounder, and a fourth rounder.

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Their pursuit of key positioners – from Lynden Dun to Jordan Roughead to Mason Cox to Darcy Cameron – are desperate Moneyball options to fill gaps that list management has somehow allowed to deepen since the departures of Chris Dawes, Travis Cloke, and Nathan Brown, and the demise of Ben Reid.

Outside of father/son Darcy Moore, the key-position height they have pursued has come low in the draft.

Drafting in recent years has arguably been better, but their two youngest guns – Jordan de Goey and Jaidyn Stephenson – have both had off-field issues.

Brayden Maynard has been excellent, but whereas the 2006 – 2010 build kept finding gems, this ongoing list build has struggled to find what you’d consider parity.

Throw in the continuing injury malaise – which prematurely ended champion Dane Swan’s career, razed Ben Reid from an All Australian centre-half back to an injury-plagued tall, to the likes of Scharenberg and Freeman and Broomhead, to the plethora of soft tissue problems that continually arise and plagued young guns such Moore, Elliott, and de Goey – and it’s hard to believe that this club will find the balance it needs in the short term.

And let’s not forget a president who was the consummate media performer in the first half of his tenure, but has so often got his foot caught in mouth in the second half that he might as well begin using his shoelaces as dental floss.

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I appreciate people will point to coming with ninety seconds of winning a flag in 2018. OK. They almost got it right once in the last ten years – a year in which breakout seasons (to de Goey and Stephenson), as well as the surprise of unseen talents (such as Mason Cox and Brody Mihocek), and the defensive input of current Fremantle coach Troy Longmuir may have helped them take opposition by surprise. They also played with audacity and run that was consistently absent prior, and has become consistently absent since.

Then there’s another fact about that near-miss: Collingwood’s grand final record is 15 wins, 27 losses, and two draws.

Getting there isn’t much of an accomplishment.

Finding a way to win one is for most clubs.

For others, the achievement is something more.

In recent AFL history, the Sydney Swans (in 2005 and 2012), Geelong (a laughingstock in the 1990s after losing three, they won in 2007, 2009, and 2011), the Western Bulldogs (2016), and Richmond (a laughingstock of the last three decades, they won in 2017 and 2019) have all managed to complete improbable fairy tales.

But fairy tales don’t happen at Collingwood.

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The club requires miracles.

And looking at where they sat in 2010 (as premiers with a talented young and balanced list) and where they sit now (also-rans, with an imbalanced list and ageing champions), it’s obvious that it’s not only gone awry, but the status quo would seem incapable of righting it.

People will counter that it’ll be different once things go back to normal, once players return from injury, once certain young players come on, et al, but in a world where a pandemic has waltzed obliviously through medical science, we should now be mature, wise, and insightful enough to recognise solutions that have become tantamount to snake oil.

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