‘Embarrassing’: Collingwood is biggest flop of 2021

Collingwood’s dungheap of a season has been brutally torched with former players revealing why the club is the biggest loser of 2021.

Jordan De Goey of the Magpies.

It started as a fire sale and ended in a roasting.

The footy world is coming for Collingwood after arguably the club’s most disastrous 12 months in recent memory.

A Round 23 belting at the hands of Essendon on Sunday saw the Magpies finish 17th on the ladder — the club’s worst ever finish for a season.

The Gold Coast, North Melbourne, Adelaide, Carlton and St Kilda have all completed seasons of misery, but it is clear Collingwood has been the real biggest loser of 2021.

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It is less than 12 months since Collingwood pulled off the monster upset of beating West Coast in the elimination final last year.

It has been a free-fall since then, beginning with the trade period from hell.

Adam Treloar and Jaidyn Stephenson were told to leave and were traded for magic beans as part of the club’s “fire sale”.

List manager Ned Guy is gone.

Football boss Geoff Walsh is gone.

Coach Nathan Buckley went in June.

Collingwood fell away.

Former president Eddie McGuire is gone after the club’s ‘Do Better Report’ failures.

New president Mark Korda remains fighting to survive the instability at boardroom level.

It emerged this weekend captain Scott Pendlebury is also yet to re-sign with the club despite an offer being made last week with reported interest from the Gold Coast Suns.

The Pies are also yet to decide who will be appointed senior coach for 2022 with Robert Harvey serving as interim coach since Buckley’s resignation. Hawthorn’s Craig McRae is reportedly the front-runner, however, the club has indicated it will wait to receive a definitive answer from departing Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson before making a final decision.

The cherry on top of the dungheap the Pies have been this year is that the club also traded its first round draft pick during the 2020 trade period, gifting GWS the No. 2 overall selection.

“If you want to start whacking teams for being disappointing, you can start with Collingwood. I think they are the biggest failure this year,” Russell said on SEN.

“Given they’re down from winning a final last year and down 11 spots.

“And now you might lose your captain? Overall the ship is bailing water out.”

His comments come after Collingwood club legend Michael McGuane torched the team for it’s “embarrassing” performance against Essendon.

“Cannot believe how bad @CollingwoodFC are using the ball. It’s been horrendous and gifting @essendonfc so many easy goals. #embarrassing,” he posted on Twitter.

Last week former Fremantle coach Ross Lyon revealed he had declined an offer to talk to the Magpies because of the “instability” he saw at the club.

“Just from the outside … I think if you see misalignment, it’s a red flag,” he said.

Jordan De Goey in the final game of the year.

Harvey said that wasn’t the case despite Collingwood finishing a long way off finals pace.

“All I’ll say is the club is absolutely going in the right direction, there’s a great future which has been mapped out,” he said.

“There’s change coming, we know that. There’s some real excitement around the place. Once that change is made, the club is in good hands.

“I’ve been here for a number of years now. The older players are as hungry as ever to achieve success. The pillars here, the staff, are hungry. I think the future is really bright.”

Meanwhile, St Kilda great Leigh Montagna believes it would be “soul-destroying” for Collingwood if Pendlebury didn’t finish his career at the club.

Collingwood has offered Pendlebury a one-year contract but he would prefer at least a two-year deal with an option to pursue coaching later down the line.

“It would be soul-destroying if Pendlebury was to leave and we don’t think that would be the case and we hope not,” he told Fox Footy’s First Crack.

“They’ve finished second last and I still think it’s going to get worse before it gets better for the Collingwood football club.

“For me, it’s not an overly enticing list to look at, at the moment. They’ve got a lot of work to do.

“That would be soul destroying. You need to keep your spiritual leader, your best player — probably one of the all-time great players at the club.

“There might be some players they might want to move on but not Scott Pendlebury, you couldn’t do it.”

Originally published as ‘Embarrassing’: Collingwood is biggest flop of 2021