AFL news: Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly backs in club’s recruiting team with revamp on horizon

Despite a mass exodus of their recruiting staff in the off-season, Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly is confident the club is ‘completely aligned’. And he had a message for those who doubt him.

Collingwood is in the midst of plans to tip its recruiting department upside down as CEO Craig Kelly expects the club to enter the football season with a drastically slimmed down recruiting team.

Former head of recruiting Derek Hine left the Pies in December and staffer Adam Shepard has followed him, taking up a post at West Coast.

New footy boss Charlie Gardiner has recently started at Collingwood, and former assistant coach Justin Leppitsch just completed his first off season heading up list management.

Kelly on Monday pointed to having “a lot going on off the field” as one reason the club’s premiership defence struggled to get going last year, as football boss Graham Wright took a sabbatical and the Magpies football department scrambled to fill the gaps.

The Collingwood CEO is confident in his recruiting team. Picture: Getty Images

“It is so hard to be at the pointy end of this competition, to get full alignment across the club … it is so important,” he said.

But Kelly was adamant there is no alignment problem beginning this year.

“The articles that get written and the little negative stuff that gets said, it is just not in touch with the inner sanctum,” he said.

“I’m sorry but we are completely aligned. With Charlie working with ‘Leppa’ on a whole new program, we are going to tip it on its head.

“We are actually going to think about how we do this differently and how do we challenge the current model on how it’s done.

“There is no gap. Shep’s opportunity (at West Coast) allows us to completely look at how the department has been run and done. We have got plenty of time. We are not recruiting now, what we are doing is looking now. It is not a problem.”

Kelly said there was no timeline or pressure to fill the recruiting team.

Richmond players Josh Smillie and Jacob Hopper along with Collingwood players Brody Mihocek and Will Hoskin-Elliott at Foodbank Yarraville to promote the 2025 Charity Shield match between the two clubs. Picture: Tony Gough

He joined Richmond counterpart Shane Dunne on Monday to launch the Charity Shield game, to be held at Ikon Park on February 26.

The game will raise funds for Foodbank Victoria and after drawing in enough support for more than 120,000 meals, the two clubs are aiming higher for the second edition of the game.

“We would love to get better and the more people that support it the better,” Dunne said.

“It was about 11,000 that turned up to the game last year and we’re hoping it is a beautiful evening at Ikon Park and we get to 15,000 plus.”

Originally published as AFL news: Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly backs in club’s recruiting team with revamp on horizon