Wreck It Ralph: What a Pies dynasty would mean for Collingwood, the league and trade period

In recent times, a sole team has held sway over the AFL for years, first the dynastic Hawks, then came the terrific Tigers, now is it Collingwood’s turn to dominate the entire landscape of the AFL?

Tom Lynch grew up a Collingwood nuffy with Nathan Buckley’s number on his back.

The Buckley Brigade member spent his spare weekends at Victoria Park family days with stars in his eyes about an AFL career.

Yet, when it came time to choose his free agency destination – as list bosses including Collingwood’s Ned Guy bombarded his parents’ Blairgowrie family home – he still baulked at a Pies side coached by his childhood hero.

Richmond had the best and most innovative coach, the most fun on and off the field, the most authentic captain, the best player in Dustin Martin.

And the best crowds as they won flags at the home of football – the MCG.

Five years later, Lynch has been vindicated with multiple flags with Buckley in the Fox Footy chair after coming so close to a flag that season.

And, yet, as Collingwood takes all before it after last year’s preliminary final near-miss, it is impossible not to come to the conclusion Craig McRae’s side are the new Richmond.

It’s been five years since Tom Lynch chose Richmond over Collingwood. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

But is the Darcy Moore-led Collingwood the new Richmond? Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

The new Victorian powerhouse that has the best crowds (65,093 home average this year), a massive membership (100,384 last year and growing).

A blockbuster fixture with four of the next seven Friday nights and the potential for a round 24 Friday nighter against Essendon.

Collingwood might have pinched Craig McRae from Richmond, but it has a coach who has made an art form of the kind of practical jokes that ease the tension of a pre-match meeting.

It has footy’s new statesman in the authentic Darcy Moore and its star-studded list contains a player in Nick Daicos who might dominate the game for the next 10-12 years.

He isn’t the new Dusty – get back to us when you win three Norm Smith Medals – but he is an untaggable, unimpeachable marketer‘s dream only scratching the surface of his potential.

Call it the Collingwood Effect.

But this club has laid the platform for what should be at least five years of dominance.

Financial dominant, fixture dominance, on-field dominance.

In short, it should aim for a Collingwood dynasty.

New AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon should see it as a gift from the gods as the league emerges from Covid-19.

If a rising tide lifts all boats, Collingwood is the team everyone’s front office wants to play.

Gold Coast just sold out their stadium when Collingwood came to town despite a raft of flight cancellations and the Western Bulldogs will attract 50,000 to a home at Marvel game on Friday night because that game involves the Pies.

Pies fans turned up in their droves at the Gold Coast on Saturday. Picture: Russell Freeman/AFL Photos

Collingwood hasn’t even had a blockbuster fixture apart from home games against Richmond and Essendon.

But it still drew 60,744 against Port Adelaide, 71,463 against Sydney and 65,930 against Adelaide in a season where five of its home games have been against non-Victorian sides or rebuilding North Melbourne (39,467 at Marvel Stadium).

As Melburnians spent hours trying and failing to secure Taylor Swift tickets last week (guilty, your honour) why were they prepared to spend up to $380 on a ticket?

Because it is not just a concert, it is a not-to-be-missed EVENT.

Does footy do enough to turn every game into an event so the kids can go home wanting to return the next week, even if their side cops a horror beat?

It is why Dreamtime at the ‘G and Anzac Day are such special days on the football calendar.

It shouldn’t be blaring music pre-match and between goals, but it has to be an experience.

For Collingwood fans every game is an event – the “Collingwood” chant, the glorious pyrotechnic style of footy, the high-scoring (six tallies of 120 points, 93 points on average).

So when the next Tom Lynch makes his decision on a club, how hard will it be to say no to Collingwood?

A side that has turned the flighty Oleg Markov into a reliable hard-charging defender, who has refined Tom Mitchell’s game into a dangerous weapon, who has got the best out of Bobby Hill and Billy Frampton as smart, targeted acquisitions.

The list demographic shows Jack Crisp at only 29, Moore and De Goey 27, Brayden Maynard and John Noble 26, Josh Daicos 24, Isaac Quaynor, Nathan Murphy and Bobby Hill at 23, Nick Daicos at 20.

Former Gold Coast defender Oleg Markov is loving his time at Collingwood. Picture: Russell Freeman/AFL Photos

Collingwood does not want one for much, but with Jeremy Howe at 33 – and contracted for next year – the Pies are on the lookout for another key back.

Rival list bosses believe Collingwood, at least, asked the question about the contract status of GWS star Lachie Whitfield as a potential long-term half back-wing replacement for the next five years.

But surely the money doesn’t work – he is on an average of $900,000 a season until 2027 – and there is no real reason other than cap space relief for GWS to let him go.

Under new CEO Craig Kelly, a club with $50 million in the bank should believe it can build on the platform Eddie McGuire established to become a financial behemoth – and should believe a yearly blockbuster fixture leads to rivers of gold.

Collingwood is lobbying the AFL to return the soft cap to its pre-Covid days so it can use its financial might on its football department and a Collingwood University-style initiative which would upskill its players for life after the game.

The league is desperate not to return to a game with financial haves and have-nots but Collingwood will believe it has enough ingrained advantages to cement its position of power even without a $9 million cap.

None of it guarantees a premiership for Craig McRae’s Collingwood.

But would anyone be surprised if Grand Final week saw Nick Daicos secure the Brownlow Medal only days after Collingwood flipped last year’s preliminary final script to advance to its first Grand Final since 2018?