Collingwood: The era that was

Before looking forward, it’s worth recapping the era that has just closed at Collingwood.

If you had to pick a starting point for it, it was back in 2009.

Eddie McGuire hastily concocts the succession plan, with many of the finer details to be ironed out later.

In 2010, Collingwood grows to be a powerhouse, but experience a hiccup in the grand final, escaping with a draw. They convincingly win the replay.

They smash the competition for much of the 2011 season.

Mick Malthouse appears on The Footy Show, effectively rebuking the succession. His relationship with his successor, Nathan Buckley, is tense. Malthouse has Buckley perform menial duties, such as moving witches hats.

In his autobiography, My Story, Dane Swan says that that a group of players wanted to approach McGuire to postpone the succession. Malthouse hoses down the rebellion, saying he signed the agreement and they need to honour it.

Collingwood lose the 2011 grand final.

Nathan Buckley becomes senior coach. Allegedly, as director of coaching, Malthouse asks for a position in the box, or on the bench. Buckley declines. The role remains largely undefined – and already untenable.

McGuire agrees to release Malthouse from his contract on the provision that he does not coach the following year. Malthouse agrees. Rodney Eade is appointed director of coaching.

Leon Davis, fresh from an All Australian year as a defender, shops himself around, but there are no takers. Later, he says if Malthouse had remained coach, he would’ve stayed.

(Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)

Collingwood up their training regimen, but then experience a horror run with injuries – it’ll be a common theme during Buckley’s tenure. He infamously makes a comment that to make an omelette you need to break a few eggs.

Buckley embarks on a cultural reinvention of the club, as reports claim that the playing environment has become (for the want of a better term) rambunctious. He targets the infamous Rat Pack.

Performances in 2012 lack the verve and energy of the previous three years. The team often look flat and listless. They stumble into a preliminary final, but lose to eventual premiers, Sydney.

The efforts in 2013 aren’t much better. Carlton appoint Mick Malthouse coach. Adam Goodes is racially abused at a Collingwood-Sydney game. Shortly afterwards, Eddie McGuire makes an unforgivable racial slight on his Triple M breakfast show. He apologises. Some query how he retains his presidency.

Collingwood bomb out to Port Adelaide at the MCG in an elimination final. In an undisciplined act, Heath Shaw throws the ball in Angus Monfries’ face.

Dale Thomas goes to Carlton under free agency. Reportedly, Heath Shaw takes ownership of his waywardness. Buckley feels he can’t be trusted. Shaw is traded out to GWS for Taylor Adams. Part of the deal is that Collingwood pay a portion of Shaw’s salary.

The departures signal a changing of the guard in this two-year period, as other players from that premiership squad are either retired or traded out. Several leave acrimoniously. Collingwood also have a revolving door of football managers.

From 2013 to 2015, Collingwood go to the draft to rejuvenate the list. The timing isn’t ideal, given the expansion clubs are monopolising the best young talent.

Collingwood take Brodie Grundie (18), Ben Kennedy (19), Tim Broomhead (20), Jackson Ramsey (38) in 2012, and Matt Scharenberg (6) and Nathan Freeman (10) in 2013.

Grundy and Kennedy aside, injuries plague the others. Kennedy struggles. Grundy is their one genuine hit from six high picks. Interestingly, Hawthorn, who also have a young list, strategically top up.

Josh Thomas and Lachlan Keeffe fail drug tests, and are given two-year suspensions.

Heritier Lumumba leaves Collingwood under bitter circumstances. Much later, he reports he experienced systemic racism at Collingwood; McGuire announces he’ll commission an independent investigation.

Heritier Lumumba (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

During the 2016 pre-season, Collingwood show promising form.

A week before the season begins, Mark Robinson breaks a story about illicit drug use at Collingwood.

Allegedly, this triggers issues in the playing group.

Sydney smash Collingwood in the opening round. Dane Swan suffers a horrific foot injury, which forces him to retire. The early rounds this season suggest something is not quite right.

Eddie McGuire jokes about drowning Caroline Wilson at the Big Freeze. He is initially glib, but then apologises. Again, the query arises around his viability as president.

Performances throughout 2016 are listless. Supporters grow frustrated.

In 2017, Eddie McGuire poaches Graeme Allan from GWS to be football manager. Claims are this is a captain call. The appointment antagonises existing football manager Neil Balme.

Balme had been part of Geelong’s successful era. He moves on to Richmond and becomes intrinsic to their success. It is a telling loss; Buckley has a good relationship with Balme.

Allan is allegedly given the mandate to do whatever it takes to get Collingwood into the finals to mollify supporter unrest. Allan recruits Daniel Wells and Chris Mayne on big dollars, as well as Lynden Dunn.

This is said to blow the salary cap out. Not long after, Allan is implicated in the Lachie Whitfield drug obfuscation and suspended for a year.

Jordan de Goey breaks his hand, claiming he injured it while playing with his dog. Later, he admits he broke it in an incident in a St Kilda bar.

Collingwood’s football in 2017 is no better than the previous years. Many who supported Buckley’s promotion to senior coach now query his qualifications.

Collingwood have missed the finals four years running. The last time that occurred was during Tony Shaw’s tenure as coach (1996-1999), which led to his mid-season resignation.

At the end of the season, Peter Murphy conducts a review of the club and makes a series of recommendations, which includes retaining Nathan Buckley, requiring him to delegate more, and providing better support. Murphy also suggests fixed terms for administrators. This is rebuked.

Collingwood brings in new assistant coaches. Among them are Justin Longmuir, Garry Hocking, and Matt Boyd.

Expectations are low for 2018. Jordan de Goey begins the year being caught drunk driving.

Collingwood shoot up the ladder playing fast, direct, and chaotic football.

In a September article, Brayden Maynard accredits the improvement to Justin Longmuir, and claims that previously they were a “shambles”.

Despite another horror year with injuries and Sam Murray failing a drug test, Collingwood storm into the 2018 grand final, only to lose it narrowly in typically heartbreaking circumstances.

In the documentary of the season, From the Inside Out, it’s remarked how Nathan Buckley became a changed person in 2018, stepping back, delegating, and allowing everybody room to grow.

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Addressing a dearth of players in key positions, Collingwood trade for Jordan Roughead. They also trade for Dayne Beams, paying two first-rounders for a midfielder who, arguably, shouldn’t be prioritised.

Again, it’s alleged his recruitment is a captain’s call. Perhaps Collingwood feel that the return (from injury) of Darcy Moore and Jamie Elliott will address other more telling needs.

Collingwood start 2019 promisingly. Dayne Beams withdraws from football with mental health issues. Jaidyn Stephenson is suspended for ten weeks for laying a bet.

Collingwood begin to splutter. They go from free scoring to struggling, from free wheeling and direct to over-possessing and indirect. They begin to resemble the 2014 to 2017 models.

On Fox Footy, Eddie McGuire seems to mock double amputee, Cynthia Banham, who tosses the coin at a Sydney-Adelaide game. Later, he apologises. But the gaffes for McGuire, once the consummate media performer, are accumulating. In some quarters, there is agitation for change.

In the final round, Hawthorn upsets West Coast over in Perth. West Coast falls from third to fifth.

Collingwood is the biggest beneficiary, beating a depleted Essendon side resting players, and rising from fifth to fourth.

Collingwood defeat Geelong in the qualifying final, despite not kicking a goal for over 60 minutes in the second half.

Everybody expects a Richmond-Collingwood grand final, but the Pies lose to a vastly undermanned GWS in the prelim, playing dry-weather football in the wet, then switching to a direct game in the last quarter, only to fall agonisingly short.

Throughout this season, the game plan has devolved. The symptoms of on-field cohesiveness and purpose deteriorating are evident.

Media report that Collingwood is experiencing salary cap problems.

Justin Longmuir is appointed coach of Fremantle and takes Matt Boyd with him. James Aish is told he’s not guaranteed a new contract the following year. He agrees to be traded to Fremantle. Matthew Scharenberg is floated but there are no takers.

Collingwood start 2020 strongly, smashing the Bulldogs, but then COVID hits.

When the season resumes, Collingwood are inconsistent, and then decline. Brodie Grundie, Jordan de Goey, and Jaidyn Stephenson are among the players who struggle when the season moves to hubs. Scuttlebutt surrounds Stephenson’s off-field behaviour.

Jaidyn Stephenson in his former colours (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Eddie McGuire twice comes out strongly advocating strict penalties against breaches of COVID regulations.

After the first pronouncement, vice-captain Steele Sidebottom is caught on a drunken excursion. Immediately following the second, Buckley and assistant coach Brenton Sanderson are caught playing tennis.

Collingwood hold onto eighth position and are given what’s considered an impossible assignment: an elimination final against West Coast at Perth Stadium. Collingwood revamp their game plan and play (mostly) their 2018 style. They win a close one – to the surprise of all.

The following week, they seem to revert to the slow, indirect, overly possessive game plan. Geelong keep them to one goal for three quarters, and ultimately run out 68-point winners.

Reports of salary cap issues re-emerge. Mason Cox, Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson, and Tom Phillips are floated as trades. The optics surrounding Treloar’s exit are horrible. The latter three go cheaply.

Collingwood fans are incensed.

Over the next week, Ned Guy, Geoff Walsh, Mark Anderson, Nathan Buckley, and Eddie McGuire sell different versions of the trade exodus.

Guy and Walsh claim the reported salary cap issues are exaggerated. Anderson talks about targeting free agents. Buckley says there were cap issues. McGuire says these stories are a beat-up.

Collingwood hit the draft hard and come away with six players. Some fans are appeased, behaving as if this has always been part of Collingwood’s master plan, ignoring that the currency Collingwood use comes not from their trade period, but by trading their first round pick for 2021.

The club asserts they’ll answer tough questions at a virtual fan forum. The forum opens with McGuire announcing his resignation, with the intention of using 2021 as a transitional year to groom a successor. For the most part, the rest of the forum is a PR exercise.

In 2021, the Do Better report is leaked, indicting the club on racial issues. Eddie McGuire goes off-script at the press conference regarding the report. He draws the ire of many. Buried under his accumulating gaffes, he resigns not long after.

Peter Murphy, and long-term board member Mark Korda, are announced joint presidents. Many fans are disillusioned that Korda holds this position, seeing him as complicit in salary cap issues given he’s been there for 14 years.

Collingwood struggle on-field, their game plan becoming ultra-defensive. Players often look confused and tired. Former Pie recruiter, Matt Rendell, frequently criticises Collingwood, Buckley, and the style of football they play.

Korda becomes sole president. Neil Wilson and Bridie O’Donnell are announced as new board members. Posts from O’Donnell’s social media platforms (particularly Twitter), in which she repeatedly mocks or derides Collingwood, enrages fans.

Forty-year member David Hatley decides to start a petition to spill the board.

Reports emerge there is unrest among the playing group, and that a coaching change might be due.

Jeff Browne announces he wants to be president. The incumbent board rebuke his parlay.

Collingwood plummet to the bottom four.

Football manager Graham Wright and Buckley hold discussions over several weeks. What emerges is that Buckley’s contract won’t be renewed.

Collingwood upset league leaders, Melbourne, in their final game against Buckley.

After meeting club administrators, Hatley steps down from spearheading the petition. Vic Nicholas takes over.

And that’s the second half of McGuire’s presidency, and could be determined as the succession era.