List Cull Time: Pies Cut Six, And It Still Stings

Every year it happens and every year it hurts just a little bit, doesn’t it? Collingwood have gone through the list and made the first cuts of the off-season, six blokes shown the door, and among them a rookie SSP midfielder who never really got a proper crack.

This is the bit of footy nobody likes talking about. The flags and the finals get all the headlines. But somewhere in the Holden Centre this week, six young fellas got a knock on the door they were dreading, and that’s real life stuff, not just list management jargon.

Who’s Actually Gone

Six names off the list is a decent chunk of business for any club, let alone one that’s still trying to find its ceiling after the flag hangover we’ve all been living through. The Pies have moved on from a couple of untried kids who never got a senior game, plus that SSP midfielder who was signed with genuine promise but just couldn’t force his way past the queue in our engine room.

And look, that’s the brutal side of the SSP system if you ask me. You get signed up on a rookie deal, everyone’s excited, and then reality hits when you’re competing with blokes who are already entrenched in a finals-calibre midfield. Its just brutally hard to break in at a club like ours right now.

Why It Had To Happen

Collingwood’s list is stacked in the midfield. Anyone who watched us this year knows that. We’ve got depth running out our ears through the middle, which is a beautiful problem to have but it is still a problem when you’re trying to find gametime for kids on rookie contracts.

Something had to give. The list rules mean you can’t just keep everyone and hope for the best. Every club goes through this, Carn the Pies included, it’s just our turn to cop the criticism from fans who reckon we should of kept this bloke or that bloke.

I get the emotional reaction. I really do. But footy is ruthless. If a kid hasn’t broken into a senior side after a couple of seasons at a club this talent-rich, the writing was probably already on the wall.

The SSP Gamble

Let’s talk about the SSP system for a second because I reckon it doesn’t get enough airtime. Supplementary Selection Period signings are always a bit of a lottery. You’re essentially betting on upside, on a kid who fell through the cracks of the national draft for whatever reason, hoping he develops into something.

Sometimes it pays off enormous dividends. We’ve all seen SSP success stories become premiership players at various clubs around the competition. Other times, and this is the harder truth, the kid just doesn’t quite have what it takes at AFL level, or the timing simply isn’t right.

This particular midfielder came in with wraps on him. Genuine wraps. But being a promising midfielder walking into Collingwood’s midfield mix right now is a bit like trying to find a park at Vic Market on a Saturday morning. Good luck mate.

What This Means For The Rebuild Timeline

Here’s where I want to push back on the doom and gloom brigade who reckon every list change is a crisis. It isn’t. This is exactly the kind of housekeeping a club with genuine premiership aspirations needs to do.

You can’t keep every player forever. The salary cap and list size rules simply don’t allow it. Collingwood’s football department clearly looked at the depth chart, looked at what’s coming through the pathways and the academy, and made calls based on where the list needs strengthening.

• Freeing up list spots for the draft and trade period
• Backing the depth already proven in our midfield brigade
• Making room for genuine talent coming through the VFL program

Is it fun to watch young blokes get cut? Course not. But is it necessary footy business? Absolutely, definately necessary if we want to keep building on what we’ve started.

Spare A Thought For The Players

Before anyone gets too clinical about spreadsheets and list balance, let’s remember these are real young men with real footy dreams. Getting delisted from an AFL club, even one as talent-stacked as ours, is a gut punch.

Some of these blokes will get picked up elsewhere. That happens more often than people think, a delisted Magpie ending up at another club and having a red-hot crack at proving us wrong. Good luck to them if that’s the path, genuinely. Footy needs blokes with that kind of resilience.

Others might find their way into state league footy, or step away from the game altogether. Either way, they gave it a real shot at the highest level and that’s more than most of us ever will.

Where To From Here

The bigger picture question for Collingwood fans is simple. Does this list cull tell us anything about where the club’s heading? I reckon it does, and it’s mostly good news if you squint past the sentimental stuff.

A club trimming untried and fringe players to make room for fresh blood is a club that’s actively managing its list rather than just letting it stagnate. We’ve seen what happens when clubs get too sentimental and end up with a bloated, ageing list that can’t turn over talent properly. Nobody wants that.

The draft and trade period will tell us plenty more about the actual direction. Watch this space for who comes in to fill those spots, because that’s when we’ll really know if this cull was about clearing dead weight or genuinely upgrading talent.

Footy is a cruel business sometimes, but it’s rarely cruel without reason.

So spare a thought for the six blokes who got the call this week. But also trust that Collingwood’s list management crew know what they’re doing after the success we’ve had. Carn the Pies, always, even in the quiet weeks of the off-season when the real work gets done behind the scenes.