AFL Pre-season News: Alastair Clarkson makes appearance at Collingwood training session
If new North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson thought he wouldn’t be noticed dropping in on Collingwood training during a morning bike ride, he was sadly mistaken. See the photos.
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A recognisable scout from a rival club was a keen observer at Collingwood training on Monday.
New North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson stopped by Olympic Park during a morning bike ride and was soon spotted by some former colleagues.
Magpies coach Craig McRae and director of coaching Brendon Bolton both worked under Clarkson at Hawthorn and joined him for a quick chat on the boundary line during the session.
Star midfielder-forward Jordan De Goey (shoulder) also spent some time on the boundary line completing work on a bike before walking some laps.
The Magpies are hopeful he will be back up and running next month.
Onballer Taylor Adams (adductor) is already back running and will resume a full training program next month.
Defender Darcy Moore made a return to the club on Monday and was looking healthy, but he won’t be back on the track until next month after recently being hospitalised with a bone infection.
Collingwood will train once more on Wednesday before players and staff take their Christmas break.
Pies take cautious approach with stars at pre-season
Brendon Bolton barked and the Magpies listened.
Late in Friday’s main training session they had mucked up their positioning in a full-ground ball movement drill.
“Everyone’s got to be on! I want the ground set up defensively,” Bolton, Collingwood’s director of coaching, instructed.
They nailed the next play.
“Have a look at that, good spacing. Well done,” Bolton said.
Then, the former Carlton coach blew his whistle and told every player to freeze. Bolton said they were set up “perfectly”. There was no possible way of getting through.
Last pre-season the Magpies did repetition after repetition.
Players spent 300 minutes engaged in one-on-one battles – ground balls and aerial contests – and match simulation didn’t kick in until late January.
But with coach Craig McRae’s chaotic game plan embedded the Magpies appear to be more conventional in his second season.
SUMMER STANDOUT
It is hard to go past Isaac Quaynor as the most impressive December Magpie. Friday’s session started with a series of sprints and Quaynor was out in front in plenty of them.
The 22-year-old recently set a club record in the Yo-Yo running test and once again looked in supreme touch.
Nick Daicos stacked on 4kg of muscle although a sore Achilles recently had restricted him.
Jack Ginnivan, wearing Tom Mitchell’s No. 6 and Jamie Elliott’s No. 5, also looked sharp. ‘Ginny’ was hard to miss, despite the borrowed jumpers and darker hair. He’s now got tips at the top and rainbow socks on his feet.
September standout Jordan De Goey, who has undergone shoulder surgery, was limited to the exercise bike on the sidelines.
It was also encouraging to see Will Kelly — who needs a nickname, with players simply calling out ‘Will’ — in full training.
The defender is likely to have his dad, Craig Kelly, installed as chief executive before round 1 although it is a make-or-break year for Will, who falls out of contract in 2023. He’s certainly got the size and athleticism to think he can make an impact.
RUNNING MACHINE
Would love to know what Taylor Adams clocked on his GPS. Adams spent about two hours running the boundary line. He’s not injured, but the Magpies are simply holding him back after missing 25 games through injury in the past four seasons. Still, Adams pushed himself to the brink. He sprinted around the perimeter for much of the session and was rarely stationary. His teammates loved it. “Yes, Tay!” they often called out as he pushed and pushed himself. Adams polled only a handful fewer leadership votes from players than Darcy Moore last year. There was one humorous moment when Beau McCreery was supposed to run with Reef McInnes. The whistle went but only McInnes took off, with Beau claiming he thought they were running individually. McCreery was sternly told: “Get it done” … and then he did.
NEW VOICE
It was refreshing to see Chloe McMillan hands-on with Collingwood’s draftees.
The club’s VFLW coach is also an AFL development coach and is being mentored by Craig McRae.
McMillan spent five years at Champion Data and is in the AFL’s Women’s Coach Acceleration Program.
The highly-regarded 28-year-old has run some drills at training lately and was spotted working closely with 18-year-old Jakob Ryan on Friday.
Ryan, the kid with a mullet to rival Bailey Smith, has fitted in seamlessly since he was drafted at No. 28 last month.
ALMOST A BLUE?
The pandemic might’ve helped Wangaratta schoolteacher Joe Richards land at Collingwood.
The 22-year-old had signed at Northern Blues – Carlton’s VFL team – in 2020, but after a state-league pre-season he returned home when Covid cancelled the season. He has never played a VFL match.
Richards booted 11 goals in his third senior match for Wangaratta and has made the monster leap from local footy to Collingwood as the No. 48 pick in the draft.
FAMOUS FACE
Twenty20 World Cup hero Matthew Wade briefly kept an eye on training. The Tasmanian who blasted Australia into last year’s final was in town to captain Hobart Hurricanes against Melbourne Stars at the MCG. Wade is also Magpie Jeremy Howe’s cousin and perhaps was taking a look at how the high-flyer was shaping up. He would’ve liked what he saw.
HARD-AT-IT FAN FAVOURITE TICKS BOXES FOR PIES CAPTAINCY
Scott Pendlebury “could probably play off halfback until he’s in a wheelchair” after the selfless superstar was lauded for stepping down as Collingwood’s longest-serving captain.
Pendlebury, who turns 35 next month, will most likely hand the reins to one of his vice-captains – Taylor Adams, Jeremy Howe or Darcy Moore, who all polled well in last summer’s leadership vote — or a bolter, such as Brayden Maynard or Jack Crisp, next season.
Premiership skipper Tony Shaw told the Herald Sun that Pendlebury’s decision to pass the baton while still starring on the field was testament to his unselfish ways.
“It’s happened a lot — I handed it up to Gavin Brown, Gavin Brown handed it over to Nathan Buckley … and I think to do it while you’re still playing can be a great advantage,” Shaw said.
“Being captain you’re really the face of the club in a lot of ways. So to bounce off someone with that experience is just sensational.
“(Pendlebury’s) on par with the greatest the club’s ever seen. His record has shown that — his longevity playing at a high level, which has been extraordinary, and his longevity of leading.
“He’s just a perfect example of all those things. I congratulate him on what he’s achieved, what he’s still going to achieve and I think it would be magnificent if he can finish with a premiership.
“I know it won’t be as captain, but that’s not an issue. I think it’s selfless and maybe the right way of doing it.”
The Magpies have joined Hawthorn and Geelong in search of a new captain after the retirements of Ben McEvoy and Joel Selwood respectively.
Essendon’s Dyson Heppell could also stand down this pre-season.
It’s understood Pies coach Craig McRae and football boss Graham Wright urged Pendlebury to continue in 2022 because they felt the club had already endured more than enough leadership changes.
Pendlebury went on to deliver another brilliant season. The decorated champion finished runner-up to September star Jack Crisp in the Copeland Trophy, which was his 14th podium finish in the best-and-fairest.
“I feel like I’m bloody about to make my retirement speech — but I’m not retiring. Not for another few years,” Pendlebury told teammates on Monday.
“At the end of the season I spoke to (McRae and Wright) and I think it’s a really good time for me and the club to handover and let someone else come through while I’m still here to keep supporting that.
“I think the group’s in a great place for the next guy to come through.”
Pendlebury captained the Magpies in 206 games across nine seasons. He is already the club’s game’s record-holder with 358.
Pendlebury could hit the magical 400 milestone as early as 2024. Shaw said that was realistic for the posterboy of professionalism.
“He could play off halfback probably until he’s in a wheelchair,” Shaw joked.
“Anytime anyone thought Scott Pendlebury might be waning we’ve all been proved wrong. That’s because he prepares better than any man on earth, probably.”
Shaw said the Magpies couldn’t go wrong appointing Pendlebury’s successor.
“They all can do it,” he said.
“It’s whether they think Maynard and Moore, who are a bit younger, are ready for it.
“Do you want an elderly captain who can do it for one or two (seasons)? Or do you want someone who’s going to be in there for four or five or maybe longer.
“Knowing Taylor (Adams) and Howe, they could do it brilliantly. It’s a great honour and a big decision, but I don’t think they’ll lose out on either one of those.”
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