Blues\u2019 delicate balancing act in watch on Cody Walker bid<\/a><\/p>\nHawthorn legend Jordan Lewis also suggested the discrepancy between Collingwood\u2019s age profile ranking and ladder position also raises questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not competing and consistently top four with the oldest list in the league, it\u2019s out of whack. It just is,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWho wants to sit at 11th as the oldest side in the league?\u201d <\/p>\n
There\u2019s already been a transition of the list with the departures of premiership-winning veterans Brody Mihocek, Tom Mitchell, Mason Cox, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Oleg Markov last off-season.<\/p>\n
Along with Collingwood giving greater senior opportunities to the likes of Oscar Steene, prior to his ACL injury, Ed Allan and Will Hayes, while the club\u2019s four AFL debutants so far in 2026 is already more than it had in 2023 (two) and 2025 (three).<\/p>\n
You sense Reef McInnes also would\u2019ve been in their plans, if not for the 23-year old\u2019s cruel second ACL setback. <\/p>\n
Though we\u2019re still yet to see former first-round pick Harry Demattia and defender Joel Cochran at AFL level, while the likes of Jakob Ryan and Tew Jiath haven\u2019t featured since 2023 and 2024 respectively.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s rightfully questions of the quality of that youth. <\/p>\n
But Geelong champion Tom Hawkins thinks those young players need to be given a chance to show their worth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they have the young players on their list. I look at Cochran, Sam Swadling played his first game, Jiath. They\u2019ve got some players there, but they haven\u2019t been exposed for long enough,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know if they\u2019re A-graders, you might just find one of these guys. <\/p>\n
\u201cSwadling was Pick 37 in the 2025 Draft. If he gets 10 to 15 games under his belt, what sort of player can he be?<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived it back in 2015 when (Geelong) had an ageing list. Regardless of how you\u2019re going on field, you need to start making decisions to eventually move some of those older players on.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, does a tough call happen on Scott Pendlebury? Is it Steele Sidebottom probably playing in his last season?<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you look at Jack Crisp, Tim Membrey, and Darcy Moore, who\u2019s a champion player, but has been vulnerable to injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo doubt they\u2019ve got a plan but it just seems, externally, it\u2019s a hard plan to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Koning injury takes tough turn | 01:35<\/p>\n
Asked by Brown if \u201ctwo or three\u201d veterans need to be moved on at season\u2019s end \u201cno matter what\u201d, Hawkins said: \u201cI would think so, yeah. Then you expose yourself back to the draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you\u2019ve got to continue to play these young guys underneath.\u201d <\/p>\n
Of those veterans, only Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Jeremy Howe and Membrey are due to come out of contract.<\/p>\n
And Hawkins thinks this could ultimately be Pendlebury\u2019s final season in a year the 435-gamer broke the AFL all-time games record and has been frequently managed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some stage, you\u2019ve got to transition the list,\u201d the triple-premiership Cat added.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got exit these players at some point in time, that\u2019s inevitable. There just has to be a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Pendlebury is a) Champion player. But seriously, they\u2019ll be having the conversation. A hard call needs to happen. I can see it being his last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tigers great Jack Riewoldt believes the starpower of Nick Daicos is key to why the club is keen to keep topping up around the Brownlow Medal favourite. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve entered into prime Nick Daicos time. How much is it (about) putting pieces around him in his absolute prime? Which could go for eight to years or longer,\u201d Riewoldt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutting pieces around him to, not keep him happy, but make sure a side that has Nick Daicos in it doesn\u2019t bottom out. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what it looks like to me. They want to stay up, they want to go and get Lachie Neale, they\u2019re looking for that running mate for Nick Daicos. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the best player in the competition on his day. They don\u2019t want to lose two to three years rebuilding again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is talk around the state of Collingwood\u2019s list overblown? Magpies coach Craig McRae hit back at scrutiny of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-754205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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