This is my first AFL related post - I plan on doing a few of these as the AFL season ramps up, as SteemIt needs a bit more Australian content.
In the interest of full disclosure - I am a Collingwood supporter, so my view may be somewhat biased at times.
So here are my thoughts as to where Collingwood is at, and how things are looking for 2018 and beyond.
Much has been made of Collingwood's failure to make the finals for the past 4 years - and rightfully so - it's the longest period the club has gone without making finals since they went 6 years from 1995-2000. The end of that period coincided with the arrival of Mick Malthouse, and our fortunes quickly changed.
It's interesting that our finals drought in the 90s was under a coach that was our former captain, that took over from a premiership coach
I do think times have changed though, AFL is a very cyclical game now, with the exception of a few clubs that either stay near the top or stay near the bottom. Collingwood unfortunately wasn't able to break the cycle, and has come back down after 8 consecutive years of finals.
In the last couple of years, there's been some puzzling moves. Chris Mayne being the obvious one - the move to bring in experience is usually synonymous of a club that thinks they're within reach of success, and we clearly weren't at the time. It's unfortunate that the on field success seems to always reflect on the coach, because some of these moves were critical to our on field success and it remains to be seen how much say the coach had.
I do think that Collingwood has been gradually improving over the past 2-3 years, even if the results do not yet show that. Their list profile has changed, a lot of younger players have gained valuable experience (even if some of them have showed that aren't quite up to it).
Our midfield is still our signficant strength - and is arguably one of the best in the game. Brodie Grundy is always improving, and is already in the best half dozen rucks int he competition. Pendlebury, Sidebottom & Treloar are probably the best trio going around, though they probably aren't the most defensive minded group of midfielders - I guess that's where Adams comes in - who is also more than handy himself. If Daniel Wells can find fitness this year, he is vital, as he adds that extra layer of class that is so hard to find these days.
Our Defence was a huge concern for me this time last year, and they really exceeded my expectations. Definitely not a strength of ours though, but it will look a lot better if Reid stays fit, and we move Moore back there.
Our forward line is a huge issue though, and in particular the way the ball moves into our forward line. This is likely game plan related, and hopefully is better this year. If Moore moves back, then it looks a lot worse than last year. I think we'll be seeing Cox playing a lot more this year and rotating through with Grundy, though he doesn't necessarily provide much of that defensive pressure once the ball goes to ground. Elliot and Fasolo are a good fit and are both capable of being prolific.
Overall - I think we're capable of making finals this season, but also capable of missing out. I'd say somehwere between 6-12th. We're basically a mid table side, and we'll have some great wins against teams that have much better prospects for 2018, but we'll also lose against teams that we shouldn't be losing to. That's the Collingwood way afterall. If I had to pick a spot for us, I'd say 7th.
I do think Buckley is the right man for the job - The decision to cut some experienced players and rebuild with youth wasn't his alone - and we had a couple of seasons of atrocious recruiting from 2012-2013 and we're paying for that now. I'm glad we resigned him, and glad we gave him that extra year so we don't have to listen to the utter bullshit from the media all year.
