My mate made an intriguing comment today

[diesel 420]

The cult of youth? Mick Malthouse is sucking the collective brain cell of Collingwood supporters into building the image of him moulding his young list. Pretty soon after it becomes evident he still hasn't got the cattle to challenge Geelong, StKilda and Hawthorn he will role out the next 5 year plan.

He is an aging coach in a footy world obsessed with youth. Soon he'll be telling us how he loves working with kids and how it keeps him young. He's a Grandpa now and feels insecure with Buckley breathing down his neck. I don't blame him for making the most of the opportunity to make subjective comparisons his list with Melbournes after yesterday. The comparison would be lost on analysts with half a brain though because quite simply Collingwood and Melbourne lists are at completely different stages of their development.

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

Rocca is no longer a fixture in Collingwood's best 22.

In our last finals win against ADL in 08, we had 11 of our 22 that were 21 or younger.

- You proved my point. I didn't say he was in your best 22. I said he was list clogger, hence your need to play kids. We play 6 guys in their late twenties, and they are our ONLY senior players on the list. We don't have an aged warhorse sitting in the wings taking up some kids spot. We have the kid.

- And how many of those 21 and under players were your matchwinners on the day? Was it the seniors or the kids that won the match? Besides, Adelaide aren't exactly the cats now are they?

Welcome though TOX. And well done on the weekend. Comprehensive and professional display. Weren't up against much, but still... Played like a football team with a season on the line.

[Guest The Old Xaverian]

And how many of those 21 and under players were your matchwinners on the day? Was it the seniors or the kids that won the match?

John Anthony kicked 3 goals.

Chris Dawes kicked 3 goals.

Pendlebury was our best midfielder on the day.

Nathan Brown shut down Kurt Tippett.

Dale Thomas turned the game in the 2nd half.

[Its Miller time 6]

Pendlebury was our best midfielder on the day.

Dale Thomas turned the game in the 2nd half.

Then you understand the need to bottom out and get a priority pick.

[H_T 3,049]

Rocca is no longer a fixture in Collingwood's best 22.

That is not what Mick said in his post match conference. Interesting. He said Anthony still has an important role to play once up and running in the seniors.

[JJJ 1,313]

I can't see the problem here. We are in the process of bottoming out and haven't yet rid ourselves of the older generation of players who aren't apart of our future plans. At the end of the year certain older players will be forced out of the door as we load up on high picks again which will drastically lower our average age (a useless stat).

So what if our team was older on the weekend? Our core players for the next 10 years are coming through but we don't have the depth to field a whole team of kids so we send out the old guard with them. At seasons end, players like Wheatley, McDonald, Robertson and Whelan will be under serious review. Add to that some middle agedish players like Bartram, Johnson, Dunn, Bell and Newton and we are left with only Green, Miller, Bruce, Moloney, Rivers, Davey, Jamar and Warnock over 25.

Of our younger players we have Jones, Watts, McLean, Bate, Frawley, Morton, Sylvia, Grimes, Maric, Garland, Cheney, Wona, Martin, Spencer, Bennell, Mackenzie, Buckley, Blease, Strauss and Jurrah as a start. Add to that potentially Picks 1 &2 and another in the top 20 and we are starting to look better. By the end of this season we will be half way through our rebuild.

People shouldnt compare us to a club like Collingwood (who will never win a flag with that list). They are pushing for finals etc. Compare us to North, Richmond and West Coast who are in similar phases. It makes for pleasant reading.

[stueyspencer no12 73]

Part of why we did so poorly was because the veterans generally had poor games.

It's not like we're about to lose our top assets to age. Our oldest player who had what I would call a decent game today was Green, and that wasn't spectacular. Moloney might be next, I'm guessing.

(Yes, I know Bruce got amongst our highest disposals, but they tended to be low-impact and there were too many pieces of lazy non-defence non-pressure from him)

As has been pointed out before, we also have a very wide split of ages - our older players are properly old, meaning that the large number of younger players are balanced out in the average age stat. Remember that one 33 year old plus three 21 year olds is the same average (24) as a 27 year old and three 23 year olds.

Mate, just watch a replay and tell me that Green ,or Moloney, were better than Bruce. About the worst game I've seen Green play. Bruce buggered up a couple of things but at least he could GET the bloody ball