I have lived in Qld for 47 years. I barrack for Collingwood all my life, I don’t have a second team. If I go to the Gabba or GC its to see Collingwood. Or sometimes to see Carlton get flogged. Which is nearly as good.

I like the comments above. Let me put it another way.

If I were to precis what I wanted to say, I kid or perhaps a recruit to the game from Ireland, about how I thought he/she should go about the game. I would say this (I claim a caveat in that I have only been a paddock footballer, so be kind.)

1. Run straight and hard at the ball.
2. Get the ball.
3. Give it to a teammate.
4. Punch the ball away when behind.
5. Inside 50 go for the goal or put it in the paddock.

But, that doesn’t answer what I look for in a player, what I see with my eye and brain in assessment, rather than eye to hand in execution.

When I watch a game, say at the lower level, to begin with, I see all the players going about their individual efforts. Not all players attract further attention for a number of reasons. Occasionally, there is one player who moves through the others, which has an effect on the game. In other words, he stands out when my brain analyses how he is performing, relative to my experience of playing and watching the game. The visual experience of watching this player tells me he is different.

I don’t have the experience and intimate knowledge from within a club of the highest level to collect, collate and analyze to a microscopic depth. Like art, I know what I like, and that disqualifies me from being an expert.

When I look at a player like Dangerfield, I see kids playing in a park on a Saturday morning. He is the big kid mature for his age dominating the others of his same year. He stands out.

I think that is what I mean when I say I judge players from how they move. It’s the closest I can come to objective selection. Tony Locket is the greatest full forward, (And Nuts Coventry the full forward of the Century), because he kicked more goals than anyone else. How he moved on the ground to achieve that is something that perhaps was obvious to all from an early age.

My subjective view would be to pick my favourite full forward, Peter Hudson. Who may not have been an obvious choice back in the day to everybody.

Still, I raise this as discourse.

Read Les’s column and consider it as a whole. He usually puts his ideas forward for you to comprehend. Like a good scribe should.

72yrs old. That make it for you.

Please keep up the writing Les. It’s really good stuff.

I felt a hollow feeling in my gut when Eddie finally resigned. Even though he took too long in reaching that decision. For me that is what happens when someone in authority stays too long, they lose judgement, hubris is a corroding force.

I don’t feel ill will toward him or Hertier, because they are human beings we are all capable of understanding. As for the Murdoch media, they have played both sides against the middle for as long as Murdochs have owned newspapers. And have never raised a level above the gutter.

The reasons, for me, that have caused all of the recent problems is that Eddie stayed too long; there wasn’t a counter influence to speak truth to power among the committee; and lastly, the members and supporters don’t have an effective influence within the Club.

It was Eddie who said, he wouldn’t go kicking and screaming.

Supporting the appointment of Clarkson, to me, would be a redundant position for Collingwood. If Hawthorn, and I doubt they will let him go. Why not aim to attract his understudy and successor to take on the Collingwood coaching position. Someone who is hungry for success from the most successful club since the fifties would be a better proposition.

I hope that the working class influence on Collingwood never fades. My experience at Victoria Park in the late Fifties and early sixties was mixed. The thrill of the team coming onto the ground made me so proud. The beer sloshing and fights in the outer were disgusting, there are still people who to the AFL to get drunk, sometimes only seeing the game on t.v. That’s their choice. In the Geelong game late last year the drunken chorus at the Gabba added nothing new and were as reluctantly accepted as their forbears.
Today we learn that Eddie is to finish as president. That’s black and white, good and bad, but remember time passes. It has since 1892.
I admire Collingwood for their social conscience but please remember we are, first and foremost, a football club. Excellence in football comes first.

Come on! Eddie will be remembered at Collingwood after all of us are gone and forgotten. I have very much wanted him to resign, but you have to respect the great work he has done. We might want to kick Carlton while they are down, with glee, but this bloke is one of us. Good luck with everything you do Eddie.

Vic, SA, WA and First Nations team. Two games a year, round robin continuous.

Give it up WASS. You are not in their class.

The report was a scientific one. Which means it’s capable of being disproved. All you have to do is examine how they came to their conclusions. Then you can contradict it, as long as you have done the research. Otherwise, it’s just an opinion.

It’s a fantasy, I know. However, if there is a first nations person out there somewhere, who is qualified to develop an ailing club, please step up. Any former allegiance will be forgiven and forgotten. There is any number of past champions to choose from, so the bar is high. Leadership is radiated from great players, professionalism, and sensitivity built-in is not as common, but we can work at it.

Good to read a rational comment by you Peter.

Sadly, the article hits the mark. Supporters will undoubtedly stand by Eddie. That’s ok. He has done a great job. It’s time the Club moved, however.

Football the Australian game always seemed to have simple strategies.

You built a team around the goal to goal line.
You get in front.
If you are behind you punch to ball away.
Inside 50 you kick for goal.

I suppose every suburban/country football coach has a basic plan that would include these things. A mixture foul language, spraying spit and snake oil they would stand on the rubbing table to harangue their team. The supporters gathered round to lift the home teams spirit.

Professional football and weasel words haven’t advanced the game, they have shackled it. I recently watched a replay of the 1984 GF between Hawthorn and Essendon. Played in a magnificent spirit, apart from one foul incident, the speed and courage was what every supporter wants from their team. But the most interesting thing I found was Sheedy’s positional changes. Duckworth the fullback to fullforward is an example. Essendon kicked appallingly but Sheedy saw that something had to change.

Football, most especially at Collingwood, because they are all that matters, has become a drudge of kicking backwards and predictability. I sat in the stands at the Geelong game. If there ever was a watershed game it was that one. No life, no spirit a geelong training drill. We didn’t get ambushed, we were beaten, badly.

As unqualified as I am as ex paddock footballer it makes my blood boil to see Mason Cox wasted. His is a unique talent and has not been exploited.

I agree with Les in perhaps trying to change things with players taking on different roles. But we only have to look at history to see how things can change and change quickly. Murray Wiedeman will be a legend as a player as long as our collective bums point to the ground, but as a coach he will always be remembered for the 76 wooden spoon. Tommy Hafey was good ordinary player but one of the truly great coaches. 1977 proves the point.

There appears to be a stagnation at Collingwood that goes beyond the one game at a time philosophy.

Criticism is a very valuable thing but little understood. It can be seen a whingeing, carping, argumentative, harsh, or unwarranted. When I read Les’s columns I appreciate them because he explains his reasoning and in his own way makes suggestions. To improve the performance of the Club, you have to put your supporter’s heart aside, leave it for the ground or the pub.

The great Melbourne club coach Norm Smith barracked for Collingwood (his biography) when the machine won premierships on the trot. He based his game plan along similar lines. Melbourne won dominated the late fifties and early sixties.

Unfortunately, Nathan Buckley for the majority of his time has coached the team to play the most miserable style of football I have ever seen a Collingwood side play. We need a change and as Eddie has decided to pass the baton, we need someone who has the football equivalent of a field marshall’s baton in his kitbag.

Graeme Wright is a good start but it can’t stop there. Norm Smith’s teams were ruthless, the machine was ruthless, for Collingwood to be successful they must become ruthless too. Only then can we go to the ground and back to the pub with pride.

Again, I find myself agreeing with you wholeheartedly, Les. Not just for the analysis of the past but for your suggestion for the future. Its crazy, its crazy to continue on doing the same thing with the same administration. The trading period was an appalling time, the Geelong game (which I attended) was the most awful experience. Everybody claims a connection to Collingwood suburb in someway or other. I do as well. We lived there when I was a toddler, as my Grandmother and Great Grandfather did. My Great uncle Joe left there 1914 and has rested in shrapnel gully ever since.
So, what’s that got to do to Collingwood? Everything and nothing. The Club has meant a great deal throughout it’s existence to it’s supporters. Heroes have put on Collingwood’s jumper for decades, that’s the way it is. That’s the way it always will be.
These are extraordinary times because mass communications gives everyone a voice. To some extent this can be a bad thing, the target of criticism can acquire an ability to deflect any view. There are those, many I suspect, who are not capable of pushing back in the search light that criticism can bring. But they all matter.
To those who seek the power of decision, accountability can be the only way that we the supporters/members can direct their actions.
All this is about a game, some would say that’s a petty thing to concern yourself with, and they maybe right. Listening to radio broadcasts, checking on results from around the world, whether you’re standing in the rain and cold, watching games on TV, in colour! It’s all part of the one constant in all our lives.
Let’s refresh the Club from within by bringing in those without, who have the expertise to change the course of our mighty Club.

To stick to the point. Nathan Buckley doesn’t have a pass mark. It’s irrelevant, because he has failed to produce a game plan, provide any innovation and only succeeded in creating a media presence. Some people are just incapable of being what they want to be. It’s over. Eddie would be better going as early as possible, so that the new administration can move one from this disappointing era.

Damn, I just liked my own post. A mistake, honest.

Premierships. That’s all that should be counted.

This is a bit of a worry, Les. I find myself agreeing with every column that you have written. Perhaps its because you write with logic as your guide. I agree with finding a president from outside. Not because those within are not suitable, but because they are within. You can continue to make the same mistakes if you trust those influences that are familiar.

Les writes an excellent column. I do agree with just about everything he has said. It is time for a generational change at Collingwood. The Club has always been insular but in the wrong way. You must have an open administration, the secret side of footy is when some player has an injury. Eddie once said they wouldn’t have to drag him out, well, it’s time he was. Who is willing to come forward and take him on. I like to read your stuff, Les.