How will Collingwood fair in 2008 ?
Collingwood fans would probably be pretty disappointed with their 2007 season finishing 6th, but their finals campaign was almost brilliant, only losing to the eventual premiers by 5 points in the Preliminary Final. Magpie fans could not have expected any more from their side. Both the Magpie hierarchy and fans would not be expected anything less than a top 4 finish this year and a Grand Final berth. The retirements of Buckley, Lucuria and Clement will be huge in an off field sense. Those 3 provided a great deal of experience and football knowledge to the young list which is difficult to replace. And there a some players that will be playing or their careers one would think.
Let’s take a look at where I think the Magpies can take that one extra step in 2008. First let’s look at the additions and deletion from the 2007 list.
ADDITIONS:
Jaxson Barham (Geelong Falcons)
Cameron Wood (Brisbane Lions)
John McCarthy (Dandenong Stingrays)
Tobias Thoolen (Bendigo Pioneers)
Rookie: Kevin Dyas (County Armagh, Ireland)
DELETIONS:
Retired: Nathan Buckley (veteran – outside list), James Clement, Paul Licuria
Traded: Ben Davies (Kangaroos)
Delisted: Guy Richards, Daniel Nicholls (rookie)
The Ruck Department is a deficiency
The Ruck is their major deficiency I think, they had 97 less hit outs than there opposition last year. Josh Fraser was obviously the leader in this department having 90 odd more hit outs than Guy Richards and it was very noticeable that the 5 games he missed they really struggled in this department. Guy Richards is now gone and incomes Cameron Wood. Wood needs to be a better support than Richards because I don’t think Chris Bryant in up to it. If Fraser can stay on the park and Wood can at least break even in his contests then this will be the key to the magpies success this year.
The Pies have a few midfielders that get plenty of the footy in Swan, Lockyer and Burns, but they don’t seem to hurt the opposition with them especially Swan, if he can hurt the opposition with his disposal a bit more then the Pies will notice a huge difference. Dale Thomas was found out a
bit in 07 with some tighter tags on him, he needs to learn how to deal with this and become a more consistent contributor. Pendelbury is going to be in the same boat as Thomas next year and I am sure he will come under close scrutiny from the other teams they are both smooth movers for the pies and are becoming extremely important through the middle of the ground. These two and even Tyson Goldsack need to be getting more of the footy as they have fantastic skills and there posessions are always quality. Maybe the great man Nathan Buckley can get back down to the club and take them under his wing and teach them some tricks of the trade.
Pressure
The pressure Collingwood puts on the opposition is second to none, they were the leader in the tackling department with an average of 58 per game, when the common target per game is around 45-50.
The loss of Buckley and Licuria will not make that much difference through the middle I wouldn’t have thought as both didn’t really have much impact last year.
The Pies don’t mess around with the footy
Rocca was the leading goal kicker in 07 but I think it is time for Cloke to step up next year and take the number one forward role. I reckon Rocca 
needs to play more as a decoy with Cloke the main man which may mean that Rocca will get the 2nd or 3rd best defender. The Collingwood midfield doesn’t seem to mess around with the footy as much as other teams and they kick the footy more than they handball (ranked 1st in kicks in 07) which is a good thing for the big forwards. It means they can lead up the ground with authority and not have to double back and around in circles like a lot of other teams do. The small forwards in Davis, Didak and Medhurst need to kick a few more goals, 1 out of those 3 needs to be up around the 40 goal mark and the other around 25-30.
This kid will be a star!
Marty Clarke, this kid is going to be a star. He will keep improving and give the pies some much needed run from defence. Clement is a big loss down there and Maxwell is going to need to become the leader. They were 9th on the list for points against and this can improve. Harry O’brien will be an import cog in the defence if he can hold a position now that he has another year of experience. Bring back Ben Johnson, and you have got quite a solid defence. Rhys Shaw needs to lift and get his career back on track at the Pies or he may find himself on the outer in 09.
Ladder Position: 2
Give me your thoughts Collingwood fans and none Collingwood fans for that matter, everyone loves ho have something o say about the Pies.
Good article Daniel. Do you read Hotrod’s stuff?
I haven’t read his stuff Karen but I will head over to the Collingwood website and have a read, thanks for letting me know about it.
Hi…Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts..what a nice Tuesday