Lethal Leigh wants to know where our improvement comes from

[Born to Pie]

Leigh Matthews has commented on SEN asking where does Collingwoods improvement come from. Whilst he has rated us a top four prospect and contender, it's a fair question for 2020 and beyond but I don't think the cupboard is as bear as the question implies.

As at round one I would our best 22 would contain:

Stephenson,
DeGoey,
Grundy,
Elliott,
Treloar,
Pendles'
Adams,
Mayne,
Phillips'
Sidebottom,
Roughead,
Crisp,
Moore,
WHE,
Maynard,
Howe,
Mihocek, and
Thomas
Cox

That's a core group of 19 that, as individuals if they were traded, would probably get a game in any other team.

Our improvement will come through those that can claim a bench spot or dislodge the core group from the starting side, namely:

IQ,
Noble,
Wills,
Sier,
Scharenberg,
C. Brown,
Daicos,
Murphy, and
Madgen.

Of those that haven't played a senior game for us, I would hope that the following players are going to put their best foot forward and stake a claim:

Cameron,
Bosenavulagi,
Kelly,
T. Brown,
Tohill,
Keane,
Wilson,
Bianco,
Rantall, and
Ruscoe.

Of the rest there are some very handy players that I would love to see available every week. But I put question marks over them and doubt we can rely on the following to either come back from injury or provide any significant improvement:

Reid,
Greenwood,
Varcoe,
Langdon,
Beams,
Lynch,
Appleby, and
Broomhead


https://www.sen.com.au/news/2020/03/03/lethals-one-question-mark-over-collingwood-in-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0uyv56OQExgkwZt0gZqgK9rerEcPu7PKStNDP92VikPC8vgtyRU68KXmM

[Clifton Hill-Billy]

Maybe the improvement comes from not having continual injuries and having consistency in the 22 on the field. Oh who am I kidding, that will never happen at Collingwood- in fact it's already started

[PyreneesPie]

[Mr Miyagi]

Our improvement comes from the media, who continually write us off.

[Albert Parker]

We don't require huge improvement to win the premiership

- Injury levels/consistency on the park. Thomas and WHE were quiet last season but can improve if guys like Jordy and Cox play more football and draw more attention. Think there is more upside in Moore to play more football and improve as he develops more physically too

- Centre clearance connectivity, led by Jordan De Goey spending more time in the guts is a huge area of improvement. Grundy got a heap of tap outs but most of them were ineffective and we weren't a great clearance team

- Let Aish go and we replace him with someone like Murphy who is a more damaging/attacking kick and offers more scope for improvement. I also think there is more pressure on guys like Cox to improve given Cameron has been recruited. He won't be gifted games.

[WarrenerraW]

Agree. It comes down to fitness, injuries and consistency. Oh, and our players staying the f*** away from scandal.

[WhyPhilWhy?]

If we start to win the majority of centre clearances, we will murder most teams.

[The Average Tourist]

I see our improvement from Stephenson he had an unusual set of second year struggles, which we hope is behind him, he appears to have so many tricks with speed and skill so hopefully we get 22 games from him and you would expect 40 goals, Billy having a real preseason plus having faith in his body and having a number of small forward options means he can play 75% of game time and hopefully get 20 games which again should be 40 goals.

Whilst JDG is going to be up the ground a bit more surely 35 goals and 20 games.

Big Coxy did his ankle on Anzac Day and really did not get right until he got poked in the eye. Having Stevo running around will take some heat off Coxy as the double team in the air with Stevo etc at his feet will cost the opposition. Having Cameron / Reid breathing down his neck will not hurt either. I also think Checkers will enjoy Stevo being back even watching bits the ninthmond preachy match Checkers and Coxy set screens very well for each other

But we need more goals out of WHE, Sidey and Cal Brown (who actually kicked more goals last year than I expected,

but the whole game starts and stops with our mids so our improvement is from Wills / Sier / T Brown

as Pendles, Big Brodie Tay and ADs cannot get much better realistically maybe Maynard might start in the guts a bit given our number of HBF's

[PyreneesPie]

Another person's view of how we can improve:
www.theroar.com.au/2020/03/05/nine-things-i-want-from-collingwood-in-2020/#comments-section

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

^Hard to argue with most of those points

[Dave The Man]

Less Injuries

[matrix10]

Lethal is a bit out of touch- looks back on stats and comments based purely on this- failed to acknowledge Cox and Jordy injured and Stevo out for big chunk.

He's a legend of the game- yet is out of touch with modern game.

Our improvements will come from less injuries (fingers crossed) and players who had interrupted years/pre-seasons, combined with some improvement for younger blokes like cal brown, IQ, Noble

Cox, Jordy, Jayden, Jamie, WHE, Darcy,et al.

[matrix10]

PS_ good article PP!

[Piesnchess]

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

In 2010 we had 19 players who played 20+ games. 6 played every game and we used a total of 33 players. I'd say that's a pretty decent run

In 2019 Richmond had just 2 players that played every game. They used a total of 39 players playing an average of 14 games each. Out of 25 games Rance missed 24, Nankervis 13, Riewoldt 12, Higgins 12, Cotchin 11

In 2019 we had 8 players who played every game and used 36 players averaging 15 games each.

You guys act like every other team never gets any injuries. Harden up