āLETāS BE HONESTā¦ā: COLLINGWOOD CAN'T WIN THE PREMIERSHIP IN 2024, ACCORDING TO DAVID KING
BY SEB MOTTRAM 8 HOURS AGO
Collingwood isnāt winning the premiership in 2024, according to David King.
On three weeks of evidence of an underwhelming Magpies outfit, King believes the reigning premiers will struggle to make the top four and subsequently go back-to-back.
They currently sit 0-3 with Brisbane away looming on Thursday night.
Furthermore, the dual-premiership Kangaroo went as far as to suggest Craig McRaeās game-plan has been found out in three consecutive losses.
After a loss to St Kilda to open Round 3, King is now prepared to call it.
āLetās be honest. Are they winning it this year? No,ā King declared on SENās Whateley about Collingwood's prospects.
āWeāve had this chat about Port Adelaide two years ago when they went 0-3. We had the chat about Geelong (last year) when they went 0-3. You fight tooth and nail now to make finals
āItās a different discussion to what you have had over two years about this type of team. Itās Collingwood this time. If youāre a Collingwood fan, take the colours out of it.
āThe chances of finishing top four are sliding, if they havenāt already dissipatedā¦ you canāt lose too many and theyāve already lost three of them. So even if you make it (finals) youāll be five to eight, and youāll be considered one of those dangerous teams. But they never winā¦ letās not worry about the anomaly, letās worry about what history shows.ā
He added: āIt would be just a ridiculous performance from them to go on and contend, to finish top four and go from thereā¦ they wonāt be in my seedings for three months, if at all this year.ā
McRae is in his third year at the helm, having taken Collingwood to a Preliminary Final and premiership in his first two seasons.
But now that the competition has caught on, King believes the Pies have no choice but to batten down the hatches and continue with their style.
āI think when you do things so drastically different, they either work big or fail big. Now they worked big for a couple of years and the competition took a long while to catch up to what Craig was doing,ā King continued.
āAn overinvestment of numbers where the football is, forcing the turnover and going. Wave run and go. If it works for 10 minutes, put a four-goal gap in the game, shut the game down. Situational. They canāt play like this for the whole gameā¦ so they would have wins through burst scoring.
āNow teams have worked this out. If you can handle the heat of being outnumbered at the source where the ball is, if you can just get it forward or get it lateral and hit a target, once you go forward it will be 5v3 in your forward line in your favour.
āNow itās been worked out and itās failing big. So itās unfair to look at their back six and say, āyouāre conceding some easy scoresā. Of course they are.
āYouāve been worked out. Does it mean you change? I donāt think you can change now. I think youāre wedded to this plan for a little while and you challenge the group to do it better, perform better.ā
However, King did laud McRae for his influence across the league and spoke about the off-season footy department reshuffle at the Pies.
Despite reported interest from other clubs, assistant coaches including Justin Leppitsch and Brendon Bolton ultimately stayed at the Pies and received promotions internally.
āCraig McRae has changed the game. And now everyone has stolen a little bit of his IP. Everyone says, āwhy did they make so many changes? Why did they keep (Justin) Leppitsch there and do (what they did) with (Brendon) Boltonā? They did it to keep the IP in. They canāt let them all leave,ā King said.
āWeāve seen whatās happened with Richmondās (Damien Hardwick) plan. They (assistant coaches at the time) are all everywhere else and theyāre flying.
āYou just have to take your hat off to what they (Collingwood) has been able to do, now theyāre in a world of pain for 2024 and you just buckle up.ā
Only three clubs have gone back-to-back in the 21st century, with McRaeās men far from the first side to fall apart in their premiership defence.
Geelong started 2023 0-3 after defeating Sydney in the Grand Final the year prior and went on to miss September action that year.
But King is optimistic for the Pies putting forward a strong performance against Brisbane in Round 4, with both 2023 Grand Finalists still searching for their first win of the season.
Collingwood and Brisbane will meet on Thursday night at the Gabba, where the Lions have lost only one game since 2022.