AFL Draft: Pies secure their full back and full forward of the future in Charlie West and Joel Cochran

Even when they won the flag, the Pies had one glaring weakness we could all recognise. Now, after the draft period, not only is that not the case, the club believes it’s spoiled for choice in that area.

Collingwood believes it is finally spoiled for choice with four established key forwards as the Pies secured their key position needs for the future with a full back and full forward.

The Pies had already paid up for free agent Harry Perryman and dual All-Australian Dan Houston but coach Craig McRae had made clear he wanted to find another ready-made key tall.

Collingwood had already brought in ex-Saints forward Tim Membrey and on night two of the draft they secured Woodville West Torrens 194cm key forward Charlie West at pick 50 after already taking Sydney academy key back Joel Cochran at pick 47 after the Swans declined to match a bid.

Woodville-West Torrens Football Club's Charlie West is off to the Pies. Picture: Cory Sutton

The Pies rounded out their late-draft haul by taking Claremont’s livewire small forward Will Hayes to add an excitement machine to a forward line already packed with lethal smalls.

But all three of those players will take time to emerge even if they are positional needs the Pies needed to find in this year’s draft given the club doesn’t have a 2025 first-round pick.

List boss Justin Leppitsch said it was up to coach Craig McRae whether the Pies could fit all of Brody Mihocek, Dan McStay and Membrey into the forward line along with ruck-forward Mason Cox but the club had plentiful options.

“Potentially. We’ve got Mason there as well. We hand the tools over to the coach and see what happens. But there’s no better way for a team to perform with pressure within at selection,” he said.

“Let’s hope we are able to keep that next year. There were nine debutantes this year so we had a few injuries and a few other little things. We still think we can be at the top of the ladder if a few things go our way, which you need to win the ultimate prize. You need not only good performance, but you need things to fall into place at the right time as well.”

Collingwood had to sit and wait as a collection of key talls came off the board in the late 20s and 30s but were still thrilled to secure Cochrane and West.

Joel Cochran also landed at the Pies. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“It was a really important draft for us with positional needs. A key defender and key forward, and then we were able to add a little bit of pace and excitement with our last pick. So I think we’ve got what we wanted out of the draft. It’s never easy for our recruiters when we are picking it so late in the draft, but I guess that’s what it is.

“It’s a really tricky part of the draft, watching all the keys go off the board through that 30s period.

“So a lot of the names that we had in that area, one at a time they were getting picked off, but we were rapt to have Joel there and then Charlie. We really rated both of those guys as keys. I guess one thing with Charlie, he’s got that strength and bulk which is really important with the way we play our game, like with Mihocek.

“ And Joel’s got the mobility. We’ve missed Nathan Murphy. We missed that second mobile key defender that’s good in the air. So we only hope. “

We give them opportunity at this stage to become those players, but at least the traits we see in them we like and we think can fit in our group.

“And Willie Hayes as well. He’s exciting. Watch a minute of his highlights, and I think the fans are going to get excited by his ground level ability, and his ball use and things like that. So I think we hit the markers that we wanted to.”