Season 2017 - Collingwood

Football Discussion Non Essendon Stuff
1

Collingwood

Coach – Nathan Buckley

2016 –
Points For –11th
Points Against – 12th

Top 5 Best and Fairest

  1. Scott Pendlebury
  2. Adam Treloar
  3. Steele Sidebottom
  4. Brodie Grundy
  5. Jeremy Howe

2016 Rising Star Noms

Darcy Moore (Rnd 19)

Ins – Chris Mayne, Will Hoskin-Elliott, Lynden Dunn, Daniel Wells, Sam McLarty, Callum Brown, Kayle Kirby, Josh Daicos, MItch McCarthy, Henry Schade, Liam Mackie, Max Lynch

Outs – Brent Macaffer, Alan Toovey, Dane Swan, Jonathon Marsh, Matthew Goodyear, Tim Golds, Darrean Wyatt, Corey Gault, Nathan Brown, Jarrod Witts, Travis Cloke, Jack Frost

My Prediction

The 2016 trade period shall forever be known as the year Bucks went all Crazy Vossy. I get the recruitment of WHE although I don’t really rate him the way a lot of others do. But Dunn, Wells and Mayne? That is the sort of drafting for a team who wants one last chance at a premiership before a few of their top end players finish up. There is a fair smell of desperation as they try and turn around the decline that started with the change of seats between Malthouse and Buckley.

The backline is dire. There is no KP back you would bet your life on. They have Keefe back and he looked promising before his ban. Goldsack seems like he is nearly finished and Howe is a little inconsistent and short. You can see why they picked up Schade but I don’t really rate him. They could get handed some real punishment this year if they lose through the midfield.

The midfield is probably their strength. Treloar, Pendlebury, Adams, Sidebottom and Crisp or De Gooey make for a handy combination. They have added Wells for outside run. Overall it looks pretty well balanced if maybe a little one paced. They have genuine talent around the middle and they will be banking on that to bring the improvement they need.

They are ok in the ruck. Grundy continues to develop and I thought White was surprising last year. Cox will never be a great ruck. I guess all hope is that Grundy stays fit. If he does they will be fine .

The forward line is not quite as bad as the backline due in large part to Darcy Moore. He looks every part the future, great hands and a beautiful kick. Then who? Fasolo gave them two goals a game last year and Cox looked ok in spurts. The thing though was that when Cloke played he was still getting the best defender. This year Moore will get that every week, I think he may battle at first. I dont see much improvement on last year. I know Mayne at his best is a reasonable medium sized forward who kicks goals and applies defensive pressure but his output seems to be dropping year on year, I am not sure why they picked him up. Small forwards Fasolo and Blair get the job done.

Buckley seems to be the living embodiment of the fact that being a great player doesn’t necessarily translate into being a great coach. I would love to be a fly on the wall in one of the list management meetings to understand just why they are recruiting the players they are. They seems to lack a genuine game plan and almost rely on individual brilliance to get the job done. Unfortunately for them they lack genuine match winners. I expect they to be relatively stagnant this year. 13-15 for mine.

2

Wells won’t play more than 10 games for them. Plus he is on 600k per year, that’s bound to put a few noses out of joint.

Their backline is one of the worst in the league with zero depth. Doesn’t matter how good the midfield is really.

14th.

  • they will still probably beat us on ANZAC day with that front running squib sidebottom pulling goals out of his arse for one game a year. >:)
3
Wells won't play more than 10 games for them. Plus he is on 600k per year, that's bound to put a few noses out of joint.

Their backline is one of the worst in the league with zero depth. Doesn’t matter how good the midfield is really.

14th.

  • they will still probably beat us on ANZAC day with that front running squib sidebottom pulling goals out of his arse for one game a year. >:)

To be fair he kicked goals in 3 games last year.

Well technically he kicked goals in 1 game, the other 2 he kicked 1.

4

Some of that midfield might be required off a half back flank. I don’t know who they have back there that can provide drive.

I don’t think they’ve improved their list, but a lot of the players that have been moved on didn’t do anything last year. So they might still be around the same mark as last year with some improvement from the younger players.

10th-14th

5

That’s one bad team, we better not lose to them.

6
At least we won't have to watch swan rack up 35 possies and kick goals against us anymore

No, what about Sidebottom, Fasolo Adams, or whats even worse. Cox.

7
Howe O'Keefe dunn Langdon Reid aisch

Sidebottom pendlebury Wells (lol)
Grundy treloar Adams

Fassolo White (lol) mayne
Elliot (inj?)Moore cox

Crisp Hoskin-Elliot Blair degoey

Q: What does Collingwood’s forward line need to be successful?

A: Moore White Cox

8

At least we won’t have to watch swan rack up 35 possies and kick goals against us anymore

9

Book Joe into surgery PRONTO. Put him on ice for the entire pre-season and send him to the fkn bahamas for R&R&R (rest, relaxation, rehab) for all I fkn care. He can miss the first few rounds too. But he has a special event in his diary he needs to be prepared for: April 25 2017

10

Ook then

11

Howe O’Keefe dunn
Langdon Reid aisch

Sidebottom pendlebury Wells (lol)
Grundy treloar Adams

Fassolo White (lol) mayne
Elliot (inj?)Moore cox

Crisp Hoskin-Elliot Blair degoey

12
At least we won't have to watch swan rack up 35 possies and kick goals against us anymore

No, what about Sidebottom, Fasolo Adams, or whats even worse. Cox.

Remember when white played for Sydney and he kicked goals against us.

13

Yeah I probably deserved that. Point being he killed us in anzac games. Last 5 anzac games he averaged 30 possies and kicked 9-6. I don’t have that worry anymore. There are plenty more downhill skiers in that team like sidebottom who could carve us up but I’ll vack us to cover them this year.

14
At least we won't have to watch swan rack up 35 possies and kick goals against us anymore

No, what about Sidebottom, Fasolo Adams, or whats even worse. Cox.

SEEDSMAN.

*Edit oops,i realised youre not talking about medal winners, but im going to keep it there anyway, still ■■■■■ me.

15

Surely we are due to spank them this year. It has become a joke.

16

We’ll smash them ANZAC Day.
This nonsense has to stop, and I’ve decided it will be this year.

I’m thinking 40pts as a minimum !

17

Collingwood is an interesting side, clearly thinking they were finals worthy and got a reality check last year and now Buckley needs finals to remain in the job.

Backline - 4 : Looks depleted and lost with Brown and Frost out and only really gain Dunn for their troubles, who will again be battling above his weight and seems to show they don’t have much faith in the other defenders if they’re relying on Dunn to be a key defender. Ben Reid will be the main man down back as for mine he was in very good form last year until injuries again put an end to his season, I daresay he’ll be even more important than usual but he won’t be able to swing forward as much as he does on occasions. Reid with Keefe will likely be the main two down back but Keefe hasn’t payed in a few years so it’s impossible to see how he’ll fare so long out of the game. Talented yes, but it’s a long time out of the game. The fact so much relies on these two would make Collingwood nervous, both are good enough but it’s razer thin. Goldsack somehow is on the list still despite failing to string a game together all year and I don’t rate him anything other than average when he does somehow get elevated to AFL level. Howe had probably his most consistent year of AFL level and found his niche down back and I thought he overall played some pretty good football although his skills went missing at crucial times, I think he’s good enough to be the second or third best rebounding defender but not good enough to be their best running player, I think perhaps Wells may have to be used in this position if he can ever get on the park. Otherwise they have a host of “talented” but unproven kids in the back. Ben Sinclair finally found a use as a running back but suffered another concussion which killed his year off again as the club put him on ice, but he’d be 50/50 to get regular games although Buckley. seems to love him, he can rack up the ball certainly which they have a lot of players capable of doing. Oxley seems to play good football and then get injured but you’ll probably find him slotting in down back this year and getting a ton of ball and being “OK” with it. Otherwise both Ramsay and Scharenberg are consistently injured and Maynard only seems to be a decent defensive option down back. Josh Smith wins a lot of the ball but like Sinclair isn’t quite good enough yet to be a big worry for opposition teams. They’re going to have to find a few defenders this year if they’re going to rise up the ladder.

Midfield - 7.5 - They can hold their hates to a good midfield, not great, but good enough to cause any team problems on their day. Pendlebury is class and you don’t really need to say much more about him. Treloar stepped up into their only consistent midfielder all year and played some of his best football, I don’t know what his potential is but I’d have him just outside of an elite midfielder, I think he has a few years before that yet. Sidebottom on his day can rip apart teams as he likes to show us on Anzac Day every year, he’s a great user and can also kick goals which makes him even more dangerous so with Pendlebury and Treloar makes a very dangerous combo. Taylor Adams had a poorer 2016 after a decent 2015, injuries wrecked his year but at full fitness he’ll slot right into being their fourth best midfielder as he can win a big chunk of the ball. Greenwood is a handy tagger and big body and will be very handy again despite having a down year last year by his standards, I think he’ll be fighting with a contingent of about 4/5 others for a few spots in that midfield, what works against him is the fact the others probably have more strings to their bow. The second tier core are relatively inexperienced but definitely talented. De Goey had a shocking season last year and really struggles to have an impact when he isn’t set in the midfield for long periods, he’ll need to make himself useful elsewhere because for now he’s a part time midfielder and he definitley won’t be getting ahead of Pendlebury/Treloar/Sidebottom/Adams for game time. Wells will rotate between the backline and midfield and you can’t doubt his class despite his injury concerns and length of contract. James Aish is good on paper only, having completely fallen into a hole the last few years after looking so promising early in his career. I don’t overly rate him as a player and I think he’ll be struggling for games this year if the midfield stays fit, especially if someone like Jack Crisp continues his good form, it’ll leave very few spots of underachievers like Aish. Rupert Wills is a smokey to be in their starting 22, big tackler and wins a ton of it and showed some fantastic late season form. Overall a very well composed midfield that can trouble any side on their day.

Ruckman - 7.5 : No issues here. Grundy will be straight in as a lock and in my view is about to step up as one of the best ruckman in the league, his late season form was sparkling. Throw in Phillips who looked handy late in the year with Cox and White who can be handy and it’s more than good enough.

Forwardline - 6 : Moore will be a very good player but will again need support. Jame Elliot is a big inclusion after a year out with injury but it’ll be interesting to see how he goes. On his day he can win you a game, just like Fasolo so them combined will make for an exciting duo for the pies. Mayne walks in from Fremantle so they obviously need KPP support for Moore despite Mayne not really being a key target. He was horrible last year for Freo and moved down back so his papers looked stamped late. At his best he’s a handy third forward but not much else, and I’ve never rated him as anything more. If Jesse White is their second KPP then it’ll continue to be a struggle for them when Moore doesn’t fire, he’s lucky he’s still on the list and yet made a career of being a handy player. Varcoe will be used as a small forward and in fairness to him looked better than most last year but hamstrings keep him from reaching anything special. Still, they’d be happy sitting back knowing they only lost Prince Lumumba for him, so the trade was a big win. I don’t think much of Hoskin-Elliot who barely strung a game together so I’m not even going to pencil him in their starting lineup. Otherwise I can’t see where the goals come from, they’ll need a good contribution from their midfield one thinks.

Predicted Finish - 10th - 12th : I think they’ll be a better unit than most think, not finals but good enough to be an annoyance. A midfield unit of Pendlebury/Treloar/Sidebottom/Wells/Adams plus others with Grundy in the ruck on their day can challenge anyone and Moore up forward with Elliot and Fasolo at his feet will cause some headaches. But overall to many patches and holes to fill to make substantial improvement and too many other clubs will jump right up ahead of them in the fight for finals.

18

Is Phillips anything like a ruckman? I thought he was a flanker/mid. #21?

19
Is Phillips anything like a ruckman? I thought he was a flanker/mid. #21?

Correct. Medium sized mid/forward. Only a kid

20

They’ll be close to bottom 4, despite beating us by 65 points on Anzac day

1 Like