Cap Space: Jay Clark looks at Collingwood’s list, Ben King hopes and the big calls facing the club
Collingwood’s list strategy was a laughing stock in 2020 and Ned Guy copped the brunt of criticism, but with things now so rosy, should Guy be getting some of the plaudits?
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Ned Guy copped football’s most fierce backlash.
When the club made the bold calls to punt Adam Treloar and Jaidyn Stephenson against their wishes in 2020, Collingwood’s former list boss was effectively strung-up in the middle of town square like a scene out of Game of Thrones.
The trade grade on the league’s website was 1/10. Respected recruiter Matty Rendell gave it an F.
SEN talkback went into meltdown and Fox Footy was scathing of the ‘disastrous’ moves, the paltry trade returns and the way the club handled the whole thing.
Certainly, the two players were embarrassingly blindsided. It wasn’t side-by-side at Collingwood anymore, they said.
This was modern footy mutiny.
And months later, unsurprisingly, Guy walked out. Perhaps, he had had a gutful.
Collingwood’s former list boss had taken an almighty hit for the team, and there were some tense discussions in the days which followed that trade period as the fallout exploded and the club sank to 17th spot the following year.
Coach Nathan Buckley was moved on towards the end of that season as part of a classy farewell from a club he had devoted his whole adult life to.
Yet, two-and-a-bit years on from one of the most memorable trade manoeuvres in recent times, there is an uncomfortable truth about what went down.
On the back of that bold salary cap cleanse, which continued into last year when the club punted star ruckman Brodie Grundy as well, the club has turned a bright and beautiful new leaf.
When Treloar and Stephenson, and to a lesser extent Tom Phillips were made to walk the plank, it was said it would devastate Collingwood’s culture.
No trust, you see.
Yet one month into the new season, Collingwood is arguably the top destination club in the land for any prospective free agents or potential targets in this year’s exchange period.
Why? Coach Craig McRae looks as connected and as supportive as any senior coach in the game, the game style is attractive, fun to be-apart-of and high-scoring, and they are a powerhouse commercially.
They play in big games in front of packed crowds, the Magpies, and it helps with things like boot deals and car sponsorships when your ambassadors are always under the spotlight on the big stage.
And for the first time in a few years, Collingwood is set to be an active player in this year’s exchange period without having to boot out some highly-paid players, first.
If the club did not move on Treloar, Stephenson, Phillips and Grundy, they would not have been able to land Tom Mitchell, Billy Frampton, Bobby Hill and Dan McStay in last year’s trade period, or Patrick Lipinski and Nathan Kreuger the year before.
And remember they signed Nick Daicos to a bumper four-year deal straight-up. Otherwise they would be paying him the best part of a $1 million after two seasons on a third-year extension, considering his astonishing surge to Brownlow Medal favourite after 20 games.
And as much as Collingwood fans loved dual All-Australian Grundy, the Magpies’ form over the first month was a big tick, considering they were widely tipped to slide down the ladder in this year’s pre-season predictions. Were all the nailbiting wins a fluke?
But credit to McRae and Graham Wright, one of the most respected football officials in the game, who has nailed the new recruit selections, despite some criticism last year of McStay’s $650,000-a-year wage.
Mitchell has been extraordinarily effective winning first possession, helping power the fast-tempo ball movement from the inside of the engine.
Hill adds the speed and class it needed in the forward half, Frampton has stepped up for Jeremy Howe and McStay is the new number one banana in the forward line, as well as the new first-choice ruckman.
It has been the most brave list management in the game, booting-out four players who all wanted to stay, but the salary cap was a mess, after some high-priced recruiting in the years before.
The board decided the club had to nuke the salary cap, and the list manager was the fall guy.
But the days of overpaying for big names such as Treloar or Daniel Wells is over for Collingwood.
The money isn’t the drawcard, anymore. The environment is.
That’s the leadership, the culture, and the coaching.
So if the welcome mat is back out on the front door stop at Olympic Park, what do the Pies need?
COULD PIES’ KING-DAICOS DREAM TEAM BECOME REALITY?
When the Magpies circled Tom Lynch in 2018, Guy jumped the back fence at Lynch’s family property in Blairgowrie in an effort to avoid the Channel 9 cameras.
The free agent chose Richmond, and led the club to back-to-back premierships in 2019-20.
Collingwood has not had a prime key forward since Travis Cloke, and it’s a credit to Brody Mihocek who has delivered handsomely since he was recruited as a rookie, and Mason Cox who bagged three crucial goals in the 2018 preliminary final win over the Tigers.
But Mihocek is 30, Cox is 32 and McStay, 27, is probably more of a No. 2 banana.
It makes Gold Coast’s Ben King the dream target.
Pies’ fans can imagine a Nick Daicos-King partnership and both would both command long-term $1-million-a-year salaries.
They are probably two of the most bankable young assets in the game, and Collingwood could sell a premiership vision around this golden Batman and Robin double act.
If King could pick any player in the league to lace-out Sherrins on his chest for the back half of his career in front of a packed MCG crowd, who would he choose? Probably Daicos.
And they are both managed by one of the best agents in the business, Robbie D’Orazio, from Connors Sports. D’Orazio also got Lynch to Richmond in one of the most successful moves of the free agency era.
But Collingwood will most likely have to wait until the end of next year, and fight as hard as it ever has for his signature, as every club in the country, including Essendon and St Kilda, will want a seat at the negotiating table. That is if he wants to leave, and so far King has been super-committed to the Suns’ cause.
The stakes are enormous for Gold Coast on this one, and the clock is ticking.
There is a broadbrush fear about what King’s departure would mean for the franchise club if it happened, considering all of those who have walked out on the club over the years.
King will have every right to put off talks until the end of next year, to assess the direction of the club, the coach’s situation, his teammates and the pull of home.
If he does stay beyond next season, it would be one of the greatest shows of loyalty and faith the game has seen in recent years.
Equally, if the Suns go nowhere over the course of the 2023-24 seasons, how could you knock him for leaving after six seasons? Will he ever play on a Friday night at the MCG?
Six years off Broadway is a decent commitment, but this is a club on notice, and 2023-24 must be a period of progress for Gold Coast.
Collingwood will have its pennies stashed under its mattress to ensure it has the scope to make the Daicos-King dream a reality.
King was taken at pick six in the bumper 2018 draft, and would likely demand two first-round picks in any trade, despite his knee reconstruction last year.
Geelong gave up three high selections (13, 15 and 25) for Jeremy Cameron and two first-round picks back. King is not Cameron, but the trade deal would be big.
Versatile GWS Giants tall Harry Himmelberg is the standout key forward free agency option at GWS this year, and is on clubs’ radars. He can play both ends, too.
And like St Kilda’s Jade Gresham and North Melbourne’s Ben McKay, the Magpies don’t have to give up any early picks in a trade to land them this year.
But the midfield isn’t immune either, and there will be plans to replace champion Scott Pendlebury and club great Steele Sidebottom, who are having outstanding years, as well as Taylor Adams, who is 29.
Finlay Macrae is waiting in the wings alongside tall midfielder Ed Allan.
WORST-CASE SCENARIO
IF there is a worry in the short-term, it is the ruck depth.
The run of injuries to the big men including Cameron (knee), Cox (rib) and Aiden Begg (back) is the worst-case scenario the Pies were desperate to avoid this year.
And to put the cart before the horse a little, the prospect of a Collingwood-Melbourne Grand Final is this year’s juiciest match-up.
The Magpies put all of their eggs in the Cameron basket and effectively made one of their biggest rivals in this year’s premiership race stronger when they handed over Grundy for pick 27.
Plus Collingwood is paying a six-figure chunk of his salary, as well as about $250,000 of Treloar’s.
The Demons now have the top ruck combination in the game and Max Gawn and Grundy would represent a massive challenge in a cutthroat final for McRae’s men.
Imagine the first bounce, in front of a packed MCG crowd, Cameron lined up against Grundy, with everything on the line.
If Collingwood make it all the way to the last weekend in September, you know which one ruck match-up they would almost certainly rather not face.
As Bruce McAvaney memorably said after the big man snatched a last-second goal to pip Richmond in Round 2, 2016 – it’s Grundy.
Originally published as Cap Space: Jay Clark looks at Collingwood’s list, Ben King hopes and the big calls facing the club
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