Gee, hasn't Dermott changed his stance!!

[Joel]

This is from the same guy who basically said were are nothing more than hacks at the start of the season and predicted us to finish last. FOOL!!

Also, he says a "premiership team's backline" would expose Anthony....um, didn't he kick 6 goals against Essendon?


Courtesy of www.realfooty.com.au
Future rosy for the black-and-white army

By DERMOTT BRERETON

Collingwood will not make the finals this year. That is certain. What is almost as certain is that it definitely will in the near future. More than likely next year.

The season the Magpies have had this year is the one that I thought they would have next year. They are a year ahead of schedule.

We often hear various clubs say that they are going to strip their list back and rebuild from the ground up. In reality, this usually means that the club is buying your patience because it has failed to be competitive.

But Collingwood has performed the real McCoy in rebuilding. It stripped back the list from what was there five years ago and gave it a total overhaul. It started under Tony Shaw. As a coach he did the hard yards with an ordinary list and high draft picks were the result. This has meant that the top-quality kids that they once missed out on were theirs for the plucking.

Therefore, the best thing that has happened to Collingwood since its 1990 premiership was a few years at the bottom.

The ability to attract these junior stars, such as Josh Fraser, to the club is as exciting as seeing Shaw hold the 1990 premiership cup aloft.

But rebuilding is not finished yet.

A football team is like a car. You are not going to make it perfect because there is not one perfect component (player). But Essendon is near enough to the finished product. It has loads of grunt in the engine room (midfield). A solid chassis from the front bumper bar, all the way through to the rear (key-position players down the spine). A beautifully balanced set of wheels (pace out wide). And a few accessories that can perform little tricks.

The Magpies' rebuilding should still aim at the chassis. Forget the rumors that they are chasing Spider Everitt as their No.1 target. They would probably like him, but Darren Gaspar would be their dream choice.

They have three brave and dependable key backmen - Mark Richardson, Simon Prestigiacomo and Shane Wakelin. For the physical attributes they bring to the game, you cannot fault them. Unfortunately, they are all essentially the same player. The same car part. A tall, dependable, one-paced player with no real tricks who the league's gun forwards will kick goals on more often than not.

They are all basically No.2 backmen who need someone such as Gaspar, Steve Silvagni, Justin Leppitsch, Jonathon Hay or Dustin Fletcher to pick up the opposition's best forward. As it stands, one of them has to draw the short straw each week.

Mick Malthouse has recruited from within the AFL better than anyone thought at the start of the year. Me included. The recycled players he got to the club all had heavy baggage. That's why teams offer them up. Malthouse has worked on these weaknesses and they are seldom seen. Put James Clement back in the Dockers' line-up and he'd more than likely fall into the old habits that saw him regularly become an irregular at that club.

Malthouse utilises these guys within their limitations and the result has been excellent. If you told a Fremantle person at the start of the year that Clement was to be trusted with stopping James Hird in round 20 they would have thought you were mad. But Clement has been so good for Collingwood this year that he deserved to play on the competition's best player.

The Magpies could do with another developing A-grade midfielder in the engine room.

Their forward line is good. But there is a question mark over Anthony Rocca, who is currently in form. He has the ability to carry the Magpies to an appointment on grand final day, but unless he can run for longer intensive periods, a premiership team's backline will exploit him.

Collingwood is serious about building a premiership team, so it should be serious about turning Rocca into a player who can run out 120 minutes of a grand final - not just a prodigious talent who runs out on to the ground and then shortly afterwards runs out of steam.

Ed keeps telling me everything is brilliant at Collingwood off the field. How would I know any different? Ed could sell you a reason for a lynch mob stringing up the Easter Bunny.

But when he tells me that everything is moving ahead as planned on the field, I know he is right and the vehicle is being meticulously built from the wheels up.


JDF