From the Pocket: It’s tempting to declare Collingwood too old but age isn’t their problem

“An old man’s dream ended, a young man’s vision of the future opened wide,” the American sportswriter Red Smith wrote when 37-year-old Joe Louis was knocked out by Rocky Marciano. “Young men have visions, old men have dreams. But the place for old men to dream is beside the fire.”

It’s tempting to analogise this current Collingwood side, to pension them off, to declare them too old and too slow. When they lost to GWS in the opening game, the Age’s Jake Niall said they were shuffling around like Joe Biden. It’s tempting, when they field 11 players who are 30 or older, when a 35-year-old is knocked senseless in the opening seconds and when they’re run ragged by a comparatively young and superbly conditioned team, to say that the team is out of time.

Certainly that was the impression in the immediate aftermath of last Thursday night’s game. Craig McRae’s folksiness can sometimes seem a bit put on, a bit of comms strategy. But he’s always good value, especially after bad losses. He doesn’t deflect, doesn’t pick fights with journalists, doesn’t reel off well thumbed lines designed to buy time. It’s something that Simon Goodwin always struggled with – to speak a language the fans can relate to.

McRae’s optimism is constitutional, and is reflected in his team, who for the entirety of his tenure have believed they can win from any position. But Thursday night was different. We all saw what happened, and he didn’t shy away from it. This wasn’t about age. The Pies are a system-based team, and the system broke down. He used the word glue several times. This was a team that had come unglued.

From the moment he arrived, the key to this Collingwood system has been the way they defend. At their very best, their defenders would swallow space. They had excellent footwork, anticipation and synergy. They were so good at playing to their individual and collective strengths and mitigating their weaknesses. They’d give the opposition just enough temptation to attack, and they’d cover it in twos and threes. They had a great sense of risk and reward – of when to apply a vice like grip and when to launch one of their cavalry attacks off half back.

It’s almost entirely absent now. So much of it was disrupted when Nathan Murphy retired. He did all the unglamorous defending – the blocks, the dragging of players to dead space. Scott Pendlebury told Niall how important he was to their system, how he “picks up the pieces”, allowing Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe to roam.

But looking at this season in isolation, and the last month in particular, the backline has been scrambling and unmoored. There’s no doubt that the injury to Howe rattled them emotionally and unglued them structurally. I was unglued just watching it. And with a key cog in the system having his brain scanned, his fellow defenders stood revealed.

Moore has been a magnificent footballer for Collingwood. But in recent weeks he’s been taken to places he’s not entirely comfortable with. Patrick Voss is one of many examples of opponents having a specific plan for him, of dragging him deep, of making him defend one on one.

Billy Frampton is the ultimate system-based magnet. His role in the 2023 grand final was pivotal. But they need a hell of lot more from him than dragging a gun key defender out of the game. Opposition coaches are targeting him, and as honest as he is, he’s being exposed. Isaac Quaynor has been better this year, but he’s heavily reliant on Howe, and seems a bit loose and lost without him.

Dan Houston is another concern. From the moment he ironed out Izak Rankine, he’s been a tentative footballer. He and his new teammates seem unsure of his role in the system. He gave away too many free kicks against Brisbane and butchered the ball against Hawthorn. At Port Adelaide he was one of the best kicks in the country. But his kicking at Collingwood has been poky and increasingly costly.

On Saturday, they play the top team Adelaide in hostile territory. If they lose, it won’t be because of their age profile. It won’t be because of Pendlebury, who was actually one of their better players on Thursday. It will be because of their defence, the majority of whom are in the career sweet spot in terms of age. Collingwood are good travellers, they play at the Adelaide Oval exceptionally well and their system has often held up when all have written them off. But when the defence is exposed, the system collapses. And there’s no bigger test than the Adelaide forward six – a mix of the brutish, the canny, the flashy, the freakish, the unobtrusive and the selfless – a mix that the Collingwood system no longer seems equipped to handle.

Crunching the numbers

The Magpies’ undefeated streak against the Crows started with a draw in 2017 and has since been followed by 10 consecutive victories.

From the archives

Collingwood’s 2009 season was chronicled in a fantastic book by journalist Peter Ryan. He captured a team on the verge of greatness, as encapsulated by a typically restrained Eddie McGuire: “We are single-minded in our approach. Make no mistake, single-minded. We will do everything possible to win a fucking premiership.’’

That all seemed like windy rhetoric when the Goodwin-led Adelaide skipped out to a six-goal lead in the first semi-final. But as Collingwood launched their comeback, the coach’s box, Ryan writes, “was like a fizzed-up glass of lemonade.” In the dying seconds, with McGuire in an apoplectic state in the stands, the ball was in the hands of Jack Anthony. He hadn’t had much of a night, with just three touches, and two of those were points. The free kick was dubious, and many Crows fans still haven’t come to terms with it. But the set shot was perfect. In a sight that’d become familiar for a decade and a half to come, a very young Patrick Dangerfield exploded out of the centre, but the siren beat him.

The Pies were dismantled by a Geelong side at the peak of its powers the next week. But within a year, they had matured, bolstered their list and were the best team in the country.

They said what?

The Blues’ incoming chief executive has dismissed suggestions that the club might consider trading Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow, Jacob Weitering, Sam Walsh or Harry McKay. “We’re like every team,” Wright added. “We want more good players, I suppose, or elite players, and those guys are in that category.”

View from the stands (or the couch)

“I’m really keen to see our best players on the ground at the same time. The [Indigenous] All-Stars game at the start of the year showed that there’s a real appetite for seeing that. Hopefully there will be an announcement soon.”

The AFL chief executive, Andrew Dillon, hints that State of Origin could return to the football calendar in 2026. Victoria defeated South Australia in the last State of Origin game played at the MCG in 1999.

Any thoughts you want to share? Reply to this email or send your views to fromthepocket@theguardian.com.

Footy quiz

Which club has finished with the most wins – and draws – in a season but missed the top eight? Bonus point if you know which year.

a) Carlton
b) Collingwood
c) Richmond
d) Western Bulldogs

Answers in next week’s newsletter, but if you think you know it, hit reply and let me know.

Last week’s answer: Which club has lost the fewest games this season against sides currently sitting in the top half of the ladder? Fremantle has lost twice in eight matches against top-half teams.

Congratulations to Greg McClurg, who was first to reply with the right answer.

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