Collingwood General Manager of List Management Derek Hine has revealed that the club intend to give their up and coming young stars a chance to show what they can do in the pre-season rather than necessarily rushing out to replace any experienced departures with like for like trades. As the trading week commences he has few firm plans in place for players that he would like to bring to the club and, whilst he will have his eyes open for potentially beneficial opportunities, he is happy to keep faith with the club’s youth.
After a disappointing 2014 season in which the Magpies finished 11th, sacrificing a play-off place after winning just two of their last eight games, including a final day defeat to eventual champions Hawthorn, it comes as little surprise that Collingwood are currently big outsiders to win the AFL Grand Final next year. With the likes of Bet365, William Hill, Sports Bet and 32Red Sports offering odds of around 25/1 on Hine’s team repeating their 2010 Grand Final win there could be big money to be made if they get their recruitment right and their young stars come good next season. Those punters that are brave enough to back Collingwood and do get lucky on their bet could consider transferring their winnings over to the online bookies’ casino sections to boost their account balance. 32Red, for instance, make it easy for players to turn their footy earnings into chips and new players can get $10 in casino chips on a free no-deposit sign-up.
Given Collingwood’s poor run at the end of last season it comes as some surprise that Hine isn’t rushing out to try and put right as many of last season’s shortcomings as possible but he thinks that he saw enough from the youngsters who have emerged in recent seasons to justify his faith. “We’ve lost a lot of experience in the last two years, just off the top of my head it’s in excess of 2000 games in two year,” Hine said, referencing the departures of the likes of Alan Didak, Ben Johnson, Darren Jolly and Luke Ball.
Despite the loss of such a strong core of players, Hine is confident that a new backbone can be built around the club’s youngsters; “from our side of things it’s about continuing to develop our younger players and, in particular, get all the boys healthy so they can have a really strong pre-season which will give us the opportunity to get them out and see what they’re made of at an AFL level,” the veteran recruiter said, before pointing to a number of success stories from recent seasons and potential prospects for 2015. “I think we’ve seen some snapshots of that, in particular with players e.g. Langdon and these types of guys that have come in and played a role- hopefully Nathan Freeman and Ben Reid and all these sorts of guys.”
Unfortunately for Collingwood fans the rush of departures doesn’t look likely to stop with those that have already left the MCG, with Heritier Lumumba looking likely to join Melbourne and, much to Hines’ disappointment, Dayne Beams requesting to be traded last week. Whilst the Magpies fans would be sad to see 24 year old Beams go, Hines has promised them that he will not be traded cheaply and that he will seek significant compensation for the man who has scored 118 goals in 110 games with the club since making his debut in 2009. “We’re obviously respectful of where Dayne sits,” Hine said. “He’s a player that we brought in at a young age and developed, and he’s just moving into the prime of his career, so that in itself gives a level of what the compensation may be for us if Dayne was to be moved,” he added.
The 2015 AFL season proper begins on 2nd April, having been delayed to accommodate the cricket world cup, so Hines and his team will have plenty of time to work with any new recruits and to further gel the young talent within their squad. Before the start of the regular season fans will get a chance to see how the Magpies are progressing when the team competes for the annual pre-season NAB Challenge, usually held in February/ March. Having won the competition in 2011, a year in which they went on to win the McLelland Cup and reach the grand final, just losing out to St Kilda, they will be desperate for a good start to 2015 and will be hopeful of wrestling the trophy away from current holders Brisbane.
