List Shake-up Likely For Pies
The Age
Monday September 15, 2008
THE generational change that has engulfed Collingwood in the past 12 months moved a step further yesterday when Shane Wakelin became the first of possibly several players at the club to retire.
Flanker Ryan Lonie is understood to have also decided to put an end to his playing career after long battles with injury early in the season allowed him to play just one senior game for the year.Captain Scott Burns' future remains, as it has each year, a matter to be resolved in discussion with Michael Malthouse in the next fortnight. He is keenly sought by a number of clubs as an assistant coach when he finally does stop playing.Brodie Holland is likely to retire while the future of midfielder Ben Johnson, the subject of a blistering attack by president Eddie McGuire at the height of the Heath Shaw/Alan Didak fiasco, remains cloudy.Wakelin's 252-game career ended on Saturday night against St Kilda, the club where the 34-year-old's AFL career began. His retirement is likely to mean that Simon Prestigiacomo - who managed just one game this season through serious injury - will play on.Collingwood finished sixth this year after fourth last year, in a year of transition following the retirements of Nathan Buckley, James Clement and Paul Licuria, then the injuries to Anthony Rocca, Sean Rusling, Ben Reid and Prestigiacomo.In the broader picture, making finals and winning one final yet finishing slightly lower on the ladder than last year was a passable effort, while new players in John Anthony, Nathan Brown, Chris Dawes, Sharrod Wellingham, John McCarthy and ruckman Cameron Wood have been brought into the fold.The most crucial decision the club now confronts is not over retirements but over what to do - or not do as the case may be - with Alan Didak.Collingwood already needs to find a class midfielder either through the draft or trades, and losing Didak would mean it would need to find two."The future is bright. We have got another three or four or five guys to come in - Danny Stanley hasn't played much (and) Benny Johnson," acting captain Josh Fraser said after Saturday's semi-final loss. "The tall forwards have been missing, but we have a fair bit of depth there and you need an element of luck in any season. We were fighting against it most of the second half of the year,"For others, such as Harry O'Brien and Tyson Goldsack, the freshness of the loss made it too raw to consider the big picture. The small picture was that Collingwood lost a game it was expected to win - something that has been a problem for it all year."It is just heartbreaking to come so close last year, and to not even get that far this year is pretty disappointing. We were aiming to get to at least the next game and to go down like that and to lose to a side we have beaten twice this year was tough," Goldsack said."During the year we lost to Carlton a couple of times when we probably should have won those, and the games we should have won we didn't. It was nights like tonight we should get over the line and we just couldn't, so, hopefully, we will work on that in the pre-season and next year we will be winning these type of games."One of the things it will doubtless need to work on in those sessions is dealing with an opposition with a strong key forward that elects to play a seven and eight-man defence.St Kilda employed the tactic effectively on Saturday night, as Carlton also did this year.On Saturday night Collingwood was ineffectual forward and seemingly incapable of penetrating a forward line clogged with opposition defenders.
© 2008 The Age
