Taylor Adams says it made sense to join Geelong but a gut-feeling told him Collingwood was his home

TAYLOR Adams knew it would have been easy to go to Geelong but he had a gut-feeling that said otherwise.

Collingwood v GWS Taylor Adams Picture:Wayne Ludbey

TAYLOR Adams knew it would have been easy to go to Geelong.

His father was a Cats supporter; his grandmother followed Geelong.

He was schooled at St Joseph’s where Cameron Ling and Matthew Scarlett are legends.

But when Adams left Greater Western Sydney in 2013, he had a gut-feeling that went against the family grain and instead chose Collingwood, at one of its most turbulent periods in recent times.

“It just made sense, didn’t it? I was a Geelong boy who should go to Geelong,” Adams said.

“Don’t get me wrong, they (the Cats) are a super football club and Chris Scott is very similar to ‘Bucks’ (Nathan Buckley) in some aspects.

“But when I met with Collingwood, I was just blown away by their plan for the future.”

One-and-a-half years into his career at Magpie land, as the club chugs closer towards a finals berth that few saw coming, Adams is content he made the right call.

At the MCG on Friday night, the resurgent Pies can notch their most significant win under Buckley with their first win over Hawthorn since 2011.

And Adams, the straight-talking hard-nut with a fierce competitive streak, has become an integral cog in the Magpie uprising.

Stepping into Dayne Beams’ onball breach, the 21-year-old is ranked first at the club for hard ball gets, second for ground ball gets, third for contested possessions and fourth for clearances.

Taylor Adams is loving his time at Collingwood. Photo: Daniel Wilkins

But it is in the quiet, non-descript moments at the Westpac Centre that the man nicknamed “Bull” knows the tough call to leave his young mates at GWS and join a club half-way through a cultural overhaul has turned out all right.

“The wins and losses speak for themselves,” Adams said.

“But off the field, the footy club couldn’t be a better place to be, right now.

“You walk into the place and you almost puff your chest out and know that you are safe here and that you are not going to get berated and that we are all trying to get the best out of each other.

“Whereas, you hear whispers from guys at other clubs and they walk through corridors with their head down and are a little bit scared.

“So, the way that ‘Bucks’ has got the footy club running at the moment is a real credit to him.”

Pressed further on Buckley’s philosophy, Adams says: “Everyone has freedom of speech”.

“It doesn’t matter whether you are Mick Manteit, who is a rookie, or you are ‘Pendles’,” he said.

“You have the right to let your opinion to be heard and you cannot underestimate how important that is at a footy club because sometimes you have the guys, your 200-gamers, who are big personalities and they are the only ones talking.

“When the strong personalities take over, you sort of miss out on some valuable messages from the younger guys or quieter guys. But at Collingwood, everyone feels valid.”

Adams, a former Geelong Falcons captain, arrived at Collingwood from GWS in exchange for Heath Shaw.

In the clash against the Giants three weeks ago, Adams had 36 possessions and seven tackles against his former side. There was, Adams laughs, some tongue-in-cheek banter with best mate Devon Smith in the final minutes of the 42-point win.

Taylor Adams at Collingwood training. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

“When we were up by six goals, I was telling them I had brought my own footy,” he laughed.

But at the time of his move, there was considerable heat, friction and unease about senior Magpies’ players’ inability to accept the direction the club was headed, after the Pies bombed out of an eighth-straight finals campaign in a first-round loss to an emerging Port Adelaide.

Premiership captain Tony Shaw said in September 2013 there “has been issues within that club about a group of players who haven’t accepted everything, as in the culture” adding that those players were “in the wrong”.

But the complaints from fans about the senior player turnover in recent years, stripping more than 3000-games experience have quietened, as the Pies hit the break at 8-3 and last weekend fell only seven points short of Fremantle in Perth.

“Walking off the (Subiaco) ground you almost thought ‘hold your head up high, boys’,” he said.

“We were so close, but there were just some mechanical things that we could have fixed, or had a plan to do on the day, and it didn’t come to fruition.”

But footy moves quick and the man taken with pick No. 13 in the 2013 national draft firmly believes the Pies are one week into a make-or-break month.

After the Hawks on Friday night, Collingwood meets preliminary finalist Port Adelaide, followed by the two big improvers, West Coast and Western Bulldogs.

Adams is blunt about the need to meet the July challenge.

“We do have a tough next three or four weeks,” Adams said.

“It was nice affirmation how good we can be, last Thursday night, but we didn’t win.

“So, if we can’t beat the best sides and if we don’t win two out of our next four, we are going to be up against it, so it’s a big test.

“I certainly think we are good enough if we are playing our best footy, but time will tell.”