Graham Cornes believes that ‘Football needs the Collingwood of 2023’ and hopes they can shake off the premiership hangover
The evidence is there. Players may scoff at the suggestion that they have succumbed to a premiership hangover, but Collingwood are in a world of pain at the moment, writes Graham Cornes.
Opinion
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Hangover. The very word invokes pain. In a football sense the pain isn’t physical but the pain persists nevertheless.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae is in a world of pain. The magic touch that so excited the football world has deserted him.
It’s not hard to see why. Unless you are constantly vigilant, success will breed complacency.
It’s not always a conscious thing. Those Collingwood players may truly believe they are preparing professionally. They may believe that they trying their hearts out. They may scoff at the suggestion that they have succumbed to a premiership hangover, but the evidence is there for all footy fans to see.
That overpowering midfield is now impotent. The backline that was so exciting when it instantly turned defence into attack is now static and, dare it be said, so defensive.
And the forward line? The free scoring has dried up. In the first three matches of the season, Collingwood has yet to score over 100 points.
The famous close escapes, and the ability to win from unlikely positions by the narrowest of margins, are now a just a romantic memory.
Fate is finite. It has been tempted once too often. The luck has run out, and with it the favour of the umpires. For rarely has a team been as harshly dealt with by the men in white/lime green as Collingwood was on Thursday night.
The statistics were bad enough (30 to 16) but it was the decision that wasn’t paid when Jack Higgins kicked a goal when he was clearly out of bounds was sheer incompetence.
Not that we would deny Higgins the thrill and the memory of that moment. He has had an horrendous journey that involved brain surgery to arrive at this time and place in his football life. Plus, he is a bright happy livewire that you can’t help but like.
The Collingwood fans baying for umpires’ blood might not be so compassionate though. But it’s always the way. When luck deserts you - and it eventually will if you push it too far - the misfortune compounds.
Still, the umpires shouldn’t escape this game without a thorough review. At least the Collingwood fans now have some sense of the injustice that the Crows fans suffered last season.
We’ve raved about Collingwood for the past two seasons; how they have revitalised football, brought the fun back into it and valued attack over defence but it was St Kilda which reversed the roles on Thursday night.
Coach Ross Lyon, he of the defensive, dour mindset, has liberated his team. The Saints played with an attacking flair that is unusual for teams coached by Lyon. The St Kilda fans, that sleeping army that has suffered so much from its team of under-achievers, has been roused from its years of pessimistic slumber.
But then again, it’s only one game and it’s only round two.
Collingwood fans are still revelling in last year’s triumph but sport is always about the next contest and it appears that the Magpies are not yet fully focused on that.
Ominously however, the players are a year older. While that often helps as they mature, there comes a time when that extra year deprives you of the powers and the instincts that set you apart from the average player. Scott Pendlebury is 36. He’s won the Copeland Trophy, five times and finished in the top three of that prestigious award a staggering 14 times.
He has had the uncanny ability to freeze time on a football field and mesmerise opponents with his balance and poise. But he looked pedestrian on Thursday night as the St Kilda players smothered him with their pressure.
Steele Sidebottom, his dual premiership teammate, seems struck with a similar malaise. He too is recognised for his balance and his poise but could find neither time or space to execute his renowned skill.
It’s always dangerous to write off a champion player but there comes a time when he has to be judged on today’s form not yesterday’s.
However, it wasn’t just the veteran players. Heroic captain Darcy Moore made basic errors in defence. Grand final hero Jordan DeGoey had only five kicks. Great players like Jack Crisp and Jeremy Howe were virtually unsighted.
The Daicos boys were under pressure all night. Grand final heroics give you credit and status but they do not help you win the next contest.
The forward line looks impotent. High profile recruit Lachie Schultz looks nowhere as comfortable as he did at Fremantle. Collingwood might not admit it but they are missing Jack Ginnivan.
Premiership hangovers are not rare. It’s not unusual for the reigning premier to struggle in the early stages of the next season and it’s extremely hard to win consecutive premierships.
It’s distant memory now but the Crows did it in 1997 and 1998. They were miracle years because both years they would not have been regarded as the premiership favourites. They came from fourth and fifth position at the end of the minor round to win the flag.
Coach Malcolm Blight was a miracle worker who would not countenance a premiership hangover, although after the first six games in 1998 the team had only won two games.
But miraculously, under the most difficult of conditions, they won the flag again in that year. But by 1999 Blight and the team were exhausted and slumped to 13th; but you couldn’t call it a hangover.
Port Adelaide battled through the seasons of 2001-2003 as the dominant team that didn’t know how to get to a grand final. The breakthrough came in 2004 when they won the flag but the hangover kicked in the following year and they only won 11 games and were eighth at the end of the minor round.
The truly great teams of the 21st century win consecutive flags, even three in a row as Brisbane did between 2001 and 2003 and Hawthorn between 2013 and 2015.
And Richmond won three flags in four years. There were no hangovers there.
However, the modern AFL system is not intended to accommodate premiership dynasties. Eventually your team must fail. The once mighty Hawthorn and the West Coast Eagles are at the bottom of the ladder and Richmond finished 13th last season.
The season is only three rounds in. Collingwood may still recover. It’s not impossible to rebound from losing the first three games of the season and they have had a remarkable knack of escaping from desperate situations.
I hope they can. Football needs the Collingwood of 2023.
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