Some of Collingwood’s tactical decisions don’t seem entirely logical: Questions for the Pies Moving Forward

Collingwood has persevered well in being competitive despite their terrible injury run.

Even though they had to look outside the box, not all of the choices seemed to make sense. These are the five things that have come to mind in the past two weeks.

The Billy Frampton

Charlie Dean starting in defence at the beginning of the season seemed an odd choice. Although the club thinks highly of him, injuries kept Dean from playing football of any kind for two years, including in the VFL.

It would have made more sense to let Dean develop his portfolio in the VFL as opposed to choosing him over Greater Western Sydney and the Sydney Swans, the winners from the previous season.

AFL

The only positional victory Collingwood has found this season comes from moving Billy Frampton into defence. Frampton is 27 years old, but when he was selected for Collingwood’s round three match against St Kilda, he had only played about 40 games, some of which were as a utility.

Since then, he’s had an influence, started to forge the kind of relationship Nathan Murphy and Darcy Moore once shared, and steadied a previously unstable region (the defensive 50). Why then put him forward?

Buddy Franklin is not going to become Frampton. He’s going to be a body at best.

Dean would seem to be a better option if that’s all Collingwood needs because he wouldn’t jeopardise the team’s recently acquired defensive solidity. Reverting to Dean in place of Frampton in defence has made a strength into a vulnerability once again.

That’s not a jab at Dean. However, he missed all of 2022–2023 and is still getting used to the fast-paced, demanding nature of professional football, let alone the AFL. He is still incredibly inexperienced.

As an alternative, two men with real X-factor and forward credentials may be Darcy Moore or Jeremy Howe, who is back. These changes would weaken defence as well, but at least the forward six would be much stronger. And still they continue on to Frampton.

One counterargument may be that, in Mason Cox’s absence, Frampton wouldn’t be able to play both defence and relief ruck.

That may happen, but Frampton isn’t a rough guy. He is merely a body taking up that space; anyone may play that part.

Johnson, Ash

In 2022, Johnson made a huge impression on the world stage by soaring ahead with slick talents and a reserved demeanour. Too terse, some would argue.

He has had a difficult season; in the first two games, he hardly touched the ball, and it didn’t help that idiots ridiculed him on social media. As a result, he appeared shattered and lacking confidence as he battled in the VFL.

The brains trust played him sporadically in defence – something I’ve been arguing that they trial since last year.

Johnson seems to lack the intensity to be a forward. You’ll see a couple of efforts from him, but he’s yet to display the intensity and industriousness that great forwards need, for example, attacking every contest with gusto, and making lead after lead after lead.

But, as a defender, Johnson would have to follow an opponent, which you’d hope would keep his head in the game. He’s got a good mark, can spoil, and has nice skills.

I’m usually loathe to see forwards thrown into defence until they’ve exhausted all possibility of realising their potential as forwards. I think Johnson’s at about that stage.

As far as Friday night against the Dogs went, the only time Johnson looked likely was when he led up to the wing.
It would seem keeping Frampton in defence, and playing Johnson as a key forward/relief ruck, would not only be much more logical, but also productive.

Giving Johnson the license to roam the ground (as the relief ruck) would also help him rediscover touch and build his confidence.

He’s significantly shorter than Frampton (by 8 centimetres), but he would be able to compensate in the ruck with his leap – at least enough to fill the role as well as Frampton.

Steele Sidebottom

Sidebottom started the season okay, struggled, and then has looked all out of sorts – well until they threw him in defence against West Coast.

Sidebottom appeared rejuvenated, accumulating 17 kicks, four handballs, six marks, and four tackles. Everybody celebrated the Collingwood genius of giving this wily veteran a new lease on life. But this was against West Coast at Marvel.

Although West Coast has been much more competitive this year, the opposition has still gotten a hold of them at times – as Collingwood did in this game. The result is a false economy as far as Sidebottom’s transformation into a rebounding defender goes.

He’s a smart footballer, dual-sided, and as a winger, he’s always been capable of dropping back and taking a useful mark or providing a chop-out. But as an actual starting defender playing one-on-one against an opponent? That’s not in his skillset.

On Friday, we saw Oleg Markov playing up forward. While I applaud McRae for trying something different, logically Markov would be the better choice as a defender and Sidebottom, who’s always shown nous around goals, would be the better forward.

It’s playing two guys out of position and hoping for positive returns, whereas playing them where they’ve shown form is likelier to offer more.

As an aside, I’m sure somebody will cite that Sidebottom’s not a forward either. But he did start there for Collingwood.

In his second season in 2010 (his first full season as an AFL footballer), he kicked 24.13, and followed that with 25.13 – thirty goals tend to be the mark for a small forward of this ilk, so they weren’t bad returns for a kid.

Later, he was used more as a midfielder who would drift forward, but even then he’s shown he knows how to kick a goal.

Wil Parker

The substitute can be used one of two ways: tactically, bringing somebody on to have an impact; or as a utility, bringing somebody on to cover for an injury. I’m unsure which role Parker fills.

He’s in his second game and is still learning his craft. He’s unlikely to come on and produce an immediate impact – he’s certainly not going to do it nestled in defence.

The only argument to be made here is that on Friday night John Noble had a game he’d prefer to forget, and he was subbed out to mitigate the damage.

But Parker’s not going to provide the searing counters that Noble attempts, so how was Parker going to produce an immediate impact?

If there was an injury, Parker doesn’t offer a lot of scope as a utility. At best, he’d be thrown into a role and positions would be reshuffled around him.

Now some of this is a necessity – Collingwood doesn’t have a lot of options to play that role as sub. Parker gets the nod simply because he’s able-bodied.

Banking on the possibility that the sub would be used tactically, even somebody like underdone forward Nathan Kreuger would be a better choice – throw him forward later in the game when the pace has gone of it and it’s opened up. Or even Ash Johnson.

Just to qualify this, none of this is a criticism of Parker. It’s just at this stage of his career with his inexperience, he seems a limited option as sub.

The Midfield Mix

One criticism of the midfield, especially given the absence of Scott Pendlebury, Jordy de Goey, and Tom Mitchell, is a lack of size. Jack Crisp is a big-bodied player, and that’s about it.

Collingwood fields a smaller, lighter midfield. Somebody like Nick Daicos can compensate with his elite skill and his reading of the play, but lacking that, the other midfielders get bustled out of the contest.

I just wonder if it would be worth throwing somebody like Isaac Quaynor in there. Quaynor has struggled this year for whatever reasons, and with John Noble and Oleg Markov available, Collingwood can cover him in defence.

Quaynor’s a big body and, at his best, provides dash. Also, Collingwood does need to think about what their future midfield will look like given the age profile of their stalwarts.

Conclusion

Obviously, the brains trust has much better credentials than me, as well as data and insight that we punters aren’t privy to.

But I’ve always struggled to understand positional moves that don’t offer much more than a player filling a position.

Somebody will no doubt comment that I shouldn’t complain – McRae played Frampton at full-forward in the 2023 grand final, and the Pies won – great.

But Frampton was played as a defensive forward whose priority was to curb Harris Andrews’ influence. This year, Frampton’s being selected as a key target. It’s a different role.

As an aside, had the Lions won the 2023 flag, it’d be interesting to consider how the context around Frampton would’ve radically polarized.

I appreciate Collingwood’s injuries mean they have to find ways to stop the haemorrhaging, but I just wish some of these positional selections weren’t just stopgap – and weren’t just cases of a body occupying a space, but actual experimentation about what the future could look like.

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