AFL 2023: Inside the list management decisions of Collingwood and West Coast since the 2018 grand final
Almost nothing separated Collingwood and West Coast in 2018 and again in 2020. But now they couldn’t be further apart. How did it get to this point? Sam Landsberger investigates.
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Collingwood had a fall guy and then a fall.
Two years ago, list manager Ned Guy resigned after a salary cap crisis was short-circuited by a fire sale of players.
Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson, Tom Phillips and Atu Bosenavulagi were shown the door in a bombshell 2020 trade period, while the club also farewelled retirees Dayne Beams, Ben Reid, Travis Varcoe, Tom Langdon, Levi Greenwood and Chris Mayne in 2020-21.
The Magpies made hard calls in 2020 and crashed to 17th in 2021. They bounced to third in 2022 and are ladder-leaders in 2023.
West Coast – who pipped the Pies for the 2018 premiership – went all-in on both fronts. The Eagles backed in their players and backed in the large recruiting team who had picked them.
Now, they look light years away from the premiership race.
Helping steer the club’s whopper rebuild is recruiter Todd Nisbett – the son of veteran chief executive Trevor Nisbett – beneath recruiting boss Duane Massey and list boss Rohan O’Brien.
It’s understood senior counsel Craig Vozzo considered external candidates to take charge of recruiting last year before Vozzo quit to become Essendon’s chief executive.
Instead, the Eagles chose to promote from within. They elevated Massey to chief recruiter in November after elevating O’Brien from chief recruiter to list manager in 2021.
O’Brien replaced premiership fullback Darren Glass, who quit the football industry to run a water filtration business.
Nisbett the CEO is hoping the team responsible for the state of the current list can also be the ones who transform it.
Todd Nisbett started as a junior under Vozzo almost a decade ago while Massey joined the Eagles in 2012. O’Brien has been a much-loved figure for more than 30 years.
Some have questioned whether a recruiting boss becoming list boss at the same club is the right progression. Unemotional decisions are required on contracts and recruiters can feel loyal to the players they drafted.
The rich contracts West Coast rewarded its 2018 heroes with were largely understandable — but hard calls on the likes of captain Luke Shuey, Elliot Yeo and Shannon Hurn are now coming for O’Brien’s team.
The Magpies’ fire sale was preceded by their one-point elimination final win against West Coast in 2020. Perhaps the Eagles lost that clash and still felt they were good enough.
Another Pies-Eagles clash — alongside the 2018 and 2020 finals — also marked a milestone in their contrasting trajectories.
In 2021, the Eagles lost Shannon Hurn’s 300th game by 45 points at the MCG after trailing 61-11 at halftime.
“The season’s still alive, we’re still thereabouts,” coach Adam Simpson said post-match.
“(But) we need to get better real quick otherwise we won’t get far at all.”
The season wasn’t alive and the Eagles haven’t gone anywhere since. That loss sparked the current record of three wins from their past 40 games.
An AFL-high 59 players have pulled on West Coast’s jumper in that run – yet Matthew Lloyd said only Oscar Allen, Tom Barrass and Rueben Ginbey were untouchable this off-season.
But Lloyd clarified that even Barrass wasn’t worth keeping if a top-10 pick was offered.
For the Magpies, you wonder whether the 2020 final planted the seed for their latest heartbreaking list decision.
Brodie Grundy was benched for bargain ruckman Darcy Cameron in the final minutes of that epic win.
Grundy’s seven-year, $7 million contract had been signed — but had not yet started — and last year they freed up the bulk of the cash they owed the dual All-Australian by trading him to Melbourne.
The $600,000 per season saved helped the Pies secure Tom Mitchell, Bobby Hill, Dan McStay and Billy Frampton in shrewd additions last October that strengthened every part of the field.
Pat Lipinski and Cameron have also grown from VFL players at their first clubs to automatic AFL selections in the premiership favourites.
West Coast’s record isn’t as flattering.
Since 2018, the Eagles have traded Tom Hickey in and out, delisted GWS recruit Zac Langdon and surprised other clubs when they secured Alex Witherden and Sam Petrevski-Seton, who rivals thought lacked competitiveness.
The Tim Kelly trade also backfired, although nobody blamed the Eagles for bringing in a reigning All-Australian when they were seemingly in the flag hunt.
Like Kelly in 2019, the Dayne Beams deal in 2018 didn’t work for Collingwood.
The Eagles have rookie-listed 20 players since their 2018 premiership.
Jamaine Jones and Jai Culley, who has ruptured his ACL, look the best of them, while it is too early to judge mid-season pick Ryan Maric. But the Eagles have already delisted 12 of those 20 rookies.
The Magpies have struck gold with Jack Ginnivan, John Noble and Ash Johnson while Oleg Markov has played 11 consecutive games.
Eight of the Pies’ 11 rookies taken since 2018 are still on their list.
No club has a crystal ball and they all make mistakes. For West Coast, the recruiting regrets might include drafting Tom Lamb (played one game) at pick 32 over his Dandenong Stingrays’ teammate Bailey Dale (pick 45) in 2014.
Or drafting Luke Partington (six games) at pick 28 over his South Australian teammate Mason Redman (pick 30) in 2015.
In 2016, they were desperately unlucky with Daniel Venables, who retired due to concussion, but struck gold with premiership player Junior Rioli.
In 2017, the Eagles thought Jarrod Brander was a steal. They ranked him towards the very top of their talent board and got him at No. 13.
Brander was delisted after 22 games. He is now back in Mildura kicking goals for Wentworth Kangaroos in the Sunraysia Football League.
But West Coast got lucky — after taking Brander at No. 13, Oscar Allen was still available at No. 21. Phew.
However, that meant there was no pick left for Kelly, who had been starring under their nose in the WAFL that season.
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WA boys Mitch Georgiades, Trent Rivers and Chad Warner all would’ve been available with the picks West Coast traded to Geelong to finally get Kelly two years later.
Nic Martin was under their noses, too. The Essendon wingman trained at the Eagles in the 2021 pre-season.
But Martin’s WAFL club Subiaco had hinted to AFL clubs that he wasn’t ready yet and it took another 12 months for the Bombers to list him. Perhaps that, too, was understandable.
West Australian 21-year-olds Denver Grainger-Barras (Hawthorn), Deven Robertson (Brisbane) and Jeremy Sharp (Gold Coast) — fringe players at their clubs — have been touted as potential targets.
But premiership Eagle Will Schofield said the Eagles need a big WA fish – an Aaron Naughton or Tim English.
Some clubs feel Simpson remains a top-line coach whose outdated game plan had been repaired before this season unravelled due to injuries and a lack of talent.
Others feel Covid ripped the Eagles apart. It felt like they didn’t want to play at all in 2020 and they haven’t got back on track since.
But whatever the diagnosis, it is over to O’Brien, Massey, Nisbett junior and their team to remedy the list.
Originally published as AFL 2023: Inside the list management decisions of Collingwood and West Coast since the 2018 grand final
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