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"It's going to get mightily ugly for this group." | First Thoughts - Collingwood (11.05.26)
10 May 2026
Chapter 1: What challenges is Collingwood facing after their loss to Geelong?
How should Collingwood, just a final put a bow on this Collingwood situation, Kingy, which you and I have sort of been on the same page all year right from the preseason that at some point it's going to get really difficult for them. You look through their best players on the weekend and they're not young.
Their highest rated players, Degoe, Howe, Pendlebury, Dacos, Maynard, Houston, Crisp, Lipinski. Not a whole lot of youth in that crew coming through. It's going to get mightily ugly for this group.
Yeah. And I don't think there's any hurry to make these decisions. I mean, you've got to just keep your finger on the pulse. It's, you know, it's what are we coming up to round 10? Um, there's, there's no, there's no hurry.
Chapter 2: How does the age of Collingwood's key players impact their performance?
Like it's, you can fall off the cliff in 10 weeks in AFL footy. Or you can gather and go again. So I don't think there's any hurry. You just have open and honest conversations with these guys. If it were as it is today, this is probably where we're leaning. So you give the player a runway to whether you're likely to go with them or not. But you've got to change your mind.
You've got to be flexible. I'm not in any desperate hurry to delist any of these guys, but I'm in no hurry to give them a positive affirmation either.
Yeah, I'm fine with that.
Chapter 3: What decisions need to be made regarding Collingwood's player roster?
But there's clearly some big decisions that need to be made around this list, as we've discussed.
I'm looking forward to them. I'm excited about what Collingwood are going to do with Pendlebury the next two weeks. And I might be on an island here, but I think that these great clubs have an unbelievable knack of tapping into the fan base and knowing what they want. They've got a huge supportive base. Anything that they do will be well supported and well represented by fans.
the black and white army, but they will do something different in the next two weeks. Everyone will go, oh, why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we see this coming? The gap between what the Kangaroos did for Brent Harvey and what Collingwood will do for Scott Pennerbury will be north of South Pole.
Chapter 4: How can Collingwood engage with their fan base during tough times?
You're not happy with Boomers?
No, I just want to see what Collingwood would do, and I think they'll set the template for these sorts of celebrations going forward. All right.