Things didn’t go anywhere near the way the Collingwood Football Club had planned in 2024.
After two wonderful years that saw the club bounce back from a horrid series of events, and pick up a premiership to boot, the Pies plummeted back to Earth, missing the finals amid a series of injuries.
The loss of Nathan Murphy, whilst seemingly minor on paper, resulted in a void that was close to uncoverable by the remainder of the list. The absence of a defence-first big man had a ripple effect across the backline, and that permeated through the rest of the team. The Pies were disjointed, and it resulted in a season where they looked like they were making up the numbers.
And really, that’s what the reigning premiers did, in the end.
Collingwood finished the year in the dreaded ninth position – no man’s land – and set out to rectify their issues heading into 2025.
The recruitment of Dan Houston was a major coup, providing the club with one of the elite half-backs in the game, and the addition of the underrated Harry Perryman offers versatility. Meanwhile, the return of Dan McStay, and healthy versions of Jordan de Goey and Brody Mihocek should see Collingwood well-poised to make another run.
The team is old – there is no getting around it – with the Pies looking at emulating the “top-up” system that has permitted Geelong a continued run of contention, this tactic will be viewed as brilliant if it works…
… or quite the opposite if it fails.
2025 will pave the way for either option, and the result will have a lasting effect on this club.
It’s that time of year, already.
The break after Christmas and New Year is over and 2024 is well and truly in the rear-vision mirror. The holidays are finished for AFL players, and the hard stuff starts now. Yes, the teams had been training for well over a month prior to Christmas, but as we head into 2025, the stakes are raised, and the intensity increases.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. This is where the kids show if they’re serious or not. New faces, new colours, old heads with renewed passion… so much feeds into the making of a contender. And as the days tick down toward the intra-club clashes, practice games, and eventually the real stuff, questions are raised about each team and how they’re going to perform in this new season.
And that’s where HB and The Mongrel come in.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all out to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you are going to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series will provide it.
The way it works is as follows.
Each club has a minimum of 15 questions asked about the upcoming season, their coaches, their players, and their expectations. The answers are not glossed over. We dive deep on each and every one of them – some singular answers would normally be long enough for an entire column. The first five questions/answers are free for you to consume. The next 10-14 for each club are for our members, including a special appearance from Mrs Mongrel to throw her two cents in the mix.
Isn’t it a bit early for a season preview? Well, I suppose, but do you know how long it takes to write seven-to-nine thousand words? That’s 18 x 8,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 144,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews; we’re going deeper than ever.
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview for any team, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a deeper season preview than this – I guarantee it. This is where we start the run to the new season, and believe me – nobody does it better than The Mongrel.
And now we come to ‘The Club’. Collingwood, you’re up
Enjoy.
1 – DO THE PIES NOW HAVE COVER FOR NATHAN MURPHY?
Sorry to start this off on a sour note, but no, they don’t. As a matter of fact, I reckon the Pies have channelled Joni Mitchell over the last twelve months, and finally come to the realisation that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. Sadly, without a good big man available through trade or free agency, it has left the Pies looking for answers in defence again.
The Magpie back six remains its Achilles Heel, particularly in terms of key position players. Darcy Moore is an incredible talent, but the role Nathan Murphy played enabled the captain to play a little looser than he was able to in his absence.
Of course, that didn’t prevent Darcy from trying to play loose, but it backfired on the Pies too often early in the season, with Moore’s opponents intelligent enough to exploit his attacking position, and he was forced to revert to a more defensive role and do the basics properly to help stead the ship.
Around Moore, the Pies have Charlie Dean, who showed a little in his eight games, but cannot be expected to play a huge role, given his limited experience. He might get there, but he is not the answer, yet.
They have Brayden Maynard, who plays tall, and can mix it up with the best of them, Jeremy Howe, who will turn 35 during the season, and is an injury risk at this point of his career, and word from track watchers is that Reef McInnes, whose name I always misspell, has been working with the defenders to play an intercepting role.
They also have Billy Frampton, who cops so much crap, but is actually quite serviceable in defence, and has been good when he has been asked to fill in as a relief ruck, as well
That said, those names don’t exactly have me brimming with confidence in terms of what this group could achieve, but with Moore as the centrepiece of the back six, there is the chance things come together.
If he takes on the role of defence-first defender, that is.
So, what could the Pies do to make it a little easier on the defence?
Well, I will go into this a little in the next section, but with the club recruiting Tim Membrey, there is a chance it has one too many tall options up forward. You have Dan McStay, Mason Cox, Brody Mihocek, and now Membrey, as well, That means there is scope to send one of the forwards back into defence to bolster the stocks there.
Membrey has played the role of drifting back for the Saints in the dying moments of quarters when they needed someone back there, but I like the thought of McStay in that role. Coming off a knee reconstruction, he may enjoy the freedom to run in a direct line at the incoming footy and be the bloke crashing the pack, as opposed to the fella standing underneath the footy.
Alas, that is a tale for the next section.
2 – HOW MUCH DOES DAN MCSTAY MEAN TO THIS TEAM?
We really don’t know what Dan McStay can do for the Pies, just yet. Getting a fully fit version of him in 2025 would be akin to getting a new recruit, and I reckon this point is missed by many. They see McStay on the list and think “oh yeah, this is year three for him at the club”.
But in many ways, this is like year one.
He has played just 19 games across his two years with the team, and whilst five came in 2024 before his injury, his 14 in 2023 were interrupted by an injury after the first five games. He has been unable to settle into a role, and has continually had to play catchup with his fitness.
In short, the Pies really don’t know what they have with this bloke.
Not yet, anyway.
Allow me, if you will, to give a rundown on why McStay was so important at Brisbane before he commenced his run of injuries at Collingwood.
There is a term I use quite often when I watch footy and report on it. It is called the Get out of Jail mark, or GooJ, for short. No one else uses it, and I couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether they do, or not, but I believe it is the type of mark that opens the game up.
It is taken between the arcs, and usually when a team is on a slow build and the options to move the ball fast are gone. In those instances, you need someone standing up to take a big grab and open the play up behind them.
Blokes like Harry McKay, Jesse Hogan, and Aaron Naughton excel in this aspect of the game.
McStay was brilliant at this part of the game, in his own right, at Brisbane. He would lead hard up to the wings, fly for the footy, pull down a grab, and force the entire opposition to adjust, as a result. The most of these grabs ever taken in a game was Wayne Carey back in 1996 against West Coast (ten of them… opposed to Glen Jakovich, too), where he just continually bailed out his defenders, and whilst McStay has not threatened that number, (nobody has), he was one of the best proponents of the skill in the modern game.
The Pies were missing that in 2024. Desperately so.
With Brody Mihocek also sidelined with injury, they just had no tall options to present up at the footy, whilst also having tall targets inside attacking 50. They were shorthanded, but with McStay returning and Tim Membrey on board, they now have the talls to free someone up to play that role.
McStay would be perfect.
The other option I thought of for McStay was a complete about-face from where he has made his living.
An ACL injury is usually a 12-month injury. McStay returned after eight in what was an incredible recuperative effort. However, there is a mental side to that injury that tends to linger for a bit longer. You don’t immediately trust the joint, and you tread a little more carefully for a while. You kind of second guess your movements – your landings, your changes of direction.
I am a big believer that you need an additional twelve months AFTER recovery, to start playing your best footy again, but McStay’s return in 2024 kind of fast-tracked that. Still, I have wondered how effective he could be patrolling half-back as an intercept player, particularly given the Pies lack of big bodies back there.
McStay’s height and strength in the contest will be a welcome addition at either end of the park, and with the Pies really requiring some stability in their key position players this season, his return has the potential to be a catalyst for a return to the finals.
3 – SHOULD THE PIES BE WORRIED ABOUT THE ‘WIN NOW’ SITUATION THEY’RE IN?
In the Sydney Swans Season preview, I wrote about how a coach and list management team have a delicate balancing act to perform every season, particularly when you’re looking to contend.
You have to assess what’s best for now, and what’s best in the future.
Unless you don’t concern yourself with the future and hope everything will work out, which is what seems to be happening with the Pies. They have built up a list that is capable of contending right now, but their younger players look… well, they don’t look all that impressive, and if you’re a Collingwood fan disputing that, I’d say there is a dire need to remove the black and white goggles.
For all the jokes about Geelong being Dad’s Army, the Pies have well and truly embraced the concept, and look as though they intend to follow the Cats’ model of topping up and attempting to stay in the premiership window, permanently!
It’s risky.
Hawthorn tried that in 2016, recruiting Tom Mitchell, Chad Wingard, and Jaeger O’Meara to sustain their run at the top, and whilst it looked promising initially, it soon came back to haunt them, with a rebuild the only answer.
Richmond had a crack at it, as well, bringing in Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper at the expense of first round picks, and it backfired on them, as well. Which way will it go with the Pies?
Of course, a premiership in the interim covers over any perceived cracks in the plan, because that’s the reason everyone plays the game, and if you snag one of them whilst avoiding the draft, all is well and good. But the downside… it’s a fast track to the AFL cellar.
What Collingwood has in its favour is that it remains a destination club. Despite clubs growing and becoming powerful in their own right (West Coast is a juggernaut in terms of wealth), the Magpies are still ‘The Club’ when it comes to Victoria. They have incredible fan support, play games in front of packed houses, and dominate headlines. If you want to play in the spotlight, wearing black and white is where you look. And it is with that in mind, we look at how Collingwood can remain in the window – by attacking free agency.
This season, they signed Harry Perryman, and I’ll get to him in his own section a little later. They grabbed Tim Membrey for nothing, and they acquired Dan Houston to fill a role they had struggled with since Nick Daicos moved into the middle. But who else is on the horizon to poach?
Restricted Free Agents like Brandon Starcevich, Andrew Brayshaw, and Luke Davies-Uniacke would be on their radar, whilst an Unrestricted Free Agent such as Sam Collins, would plug a lot of holes in the back six, and allow Darcy Moore more freedom to play his natural game.
And then, of course, there are players who just want out of their current club, and amazingly nominate Collingwood as their preferred destination. Funny how often that happens, these days, right Dan McStay, Lachie Schultz, Dan Houston, and Pat Lipinski?
If the Pies are able to become the second stop, or third in some cases, for high-quality free agents, as they make their way through their AFL careers, then they are in a position where they can use their significant drawing power, and perpetual success, to act as the hook to snag a big fish.
Hell, the fish might just jump right into the boat when it comes to playing for the Pies!
Should they be concerned about a win-now attitude?
No, not right now. Not unless they stop winning.
Nobody wants to come to a club sitting on the periphery of the top eight, or starting to fade into irrelevancy.
So, as long as the Pies keep winning games of footy, the cycle of players wanting to head their way will continue. It is a dangerous game, particularly as you need good kids to come through and grow organically to support the old fellas.
But the rewards could be plentiful.
And who knows… maybe the Pies can convince Mr and Mrs Daicos that two kids is not enough. That’d help, as well.
4 – DID DAN HOUSTON JUST REMEDY THE PIES’ SECOND-BIGGEST ISSUE?
I think the key defensive spots are their biggest issues at the club, but the Pies desperately needed an elite ball user off half-back, and in Dan Houston, that is exactly what they received.
Houston is everything the Pies didn’t have across half-back last season. That is no shade intended at Jeremy Howe, Brayden Maynard, or the departed John Noble – they’re all solid to excellent players, but if I were to offer you the choice of any one of them, or Dan Houston distributing the ball from defence, who would you choose?
You’re damn right it’s Houston.
Every.
Single.
Time.
The bloke is an assassin with the ball in hand. He always looks composed, hits short targets without thinking, and has a cannon attached to his leg that enables him to roost the footy over the back and into the path of a forward doubling back to goal.
Additionally, he is one of those players you cannot leave alone anywhere near 70 metres out, as if he receives the footy from a marking player, and he is on the run, he is within range and will have a ping at goal. Who was doing that for the Pies last season?
Howe kicked five, but he also played forward. Sidebottom had four, and Maynard had three.
Houston had seven in 2024 and nine in 2023. He hits the scoreboard.
Putting this out there – Dan Houston (after he finishes serving the suspension he got for dropping Izak Rankine like a bad habit), will be in the top five for average disposals, rebounds, and metres gained at Collingwood this season. The Pies will look to him as their release player as often as they can, and if he is permitted a free run at the footy, the forwards will be licking their chops at the thought of leading to him.
Again, I worry about the talls in defence, but in terms of half-backs, the addition of Houston makes this Collingwood unit a much more dangerous prospect. He was the perfect recruit for the role.
5 – WHAT DO THE WORDS ‘PLANTAR FASCIITIS’ MEAN TO YOU?
Probably a little more at the moment than usual, right?
The human headline generator (for good reason), Nick Daicos, sent a scare through Collingwood fandom this past week, when it was revealed he is battling a case of plantar fasciitis, and was restricted to riding an exercise bike at training.
Alarm bells, right?
Well, so many times, the reporting is accurate, but the headlines are misleading. You see, in headlines, the word ‘mild’ was left out, and it is only when you read the story that you realise that this was as much a preventative measure, as it was a reactionary one.
But I have to admit, when I first read that headline, I almost jumped to the conclusion that he would have a severely impacted pre-season, but the more I think about it, I see this as a speed bump, and nowhere near the roadblock it was being made out to be.
Daicos is a fitness beast – he runs hard all day, and even though I have stated that as part of sections on many players in these previews, this is one where it almost applies to him differently. Daicos just hits differently in terms of work ethic.
I watch him run from contest to contest and the bloke just digs in. He doesn’t just run – he powers to receive the footy after he disposes of it. Nobody drops the hammer and takes off in an effort to provide another option quite like Nick Daicos. It is most evident when he chips the ball thirty metres to a teammate. So many players do that, then break into a trot to get to the foot of the next contest, hoping they can run onto a loose footy.
Not Daicos.
He goes flat out as soon as he releases the footy, and before you know it, he has bolted past the man on the mark and is running past the initial recipient of the footy, ready to receive a handball. It’s a two-for-one disposal chain for him, and he is the one that makes it happen.
There are a lot of reasons this bloke has become elite, but his repeat efforts just might be the biggest. He is a star because he wants it more than others around him, and when you watch him play, once you see his work off the ball, you cannot unsee it. Instead, you start wondering why others aren’t doing it.
So, for the sake of opposition fans reading this, what would an interrupted pre-season mean for Daicos and the Pies in 2025?
Normally, if a midfielder went from 100% fitness down to 90% during pre-season, I’d be worried, but there are a couple of factors that have me dismissing the impact it would have on Daicos.
Firstly, he isn’t the type that can only play midfield. He has already spent a season and a bit running off half-back, and he made playing that role look easy. Slotting in at that role, and working his way up through the middle would likely see him win more easy footy than he does when he plays in the guts.
He can also rest forward, as his 20 goals in 2024 indicates. He knows where the big stiks are – it runs in the family, and if he needs to manage any foot injury, a forward pocket could see him crack games open like an egg.
Next, his fitness base is huge. He has done the work to be one of the best players in the game. If he does have to take a week or two off to get his foot right, then it is unlikely to have a significant impact on his overall fitness. It is something that will easily be caught up on.
I am certain there will be those who quietly celebrate the fact that Daicos is not having the perfect pre-season. I bet they’re dying to trot out the “No Naicos, no Collingwood” line they’ve been sitting on for a while, but to those people, I am sorry to say that Daicos is going nowhere, and he will be a massive part of the Pies’ 2025 season.
Stories of Rob Harvey “fixing” his own Plantar Fascia by jumping off a table are legend, but that was a condition he’d been dealing with for months. This situation with Daicos is vastly different. I expect you’ll see him back on the track soon, after giving his foot a little bit of rest, and by the time the season arrives (just over seven weeks, people!), he will be ready to resume one of the brightest careers in the game.
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