Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne has pinpointed where things are going wrong for Collingwood defensively.
The Magpies were flying down back just a few weeks ago, but Hoyne has seen a significant downturn across the last two games where they’ve leaked 118 points to North Melbourne and 101 points to Gold Coast.
Over the last six weeks, Champion Data has the Pies 13th in overall defensive profile and 17th in regard to winning the footy back between the arcs.
Both of those stats are a stark contrast to what their profile suggested in 2022, 2023 and early in the 2024 campaign.
“At around Round 10 or Round 11 their profile was through the roof and you’re sitting there going, ‘Geez, this team’s just sitting there perfectly with an injury list and personnel that was going to come back’,” Hoyne said on SEN Sportsday.
“But at the moment over the last six-week period, they’ve just got a couple of concerns that are very un-Collingwood like that we have not seen under the Craig McRae regime.
“They’ve always been so strong behind the footy in terms of their defensive profile. Their defensive profile in 2022 was the fourth best in the competition and last year the fifth best in the competition.
“The first 10 weeks of this year they were the fourth best in the competition, but recently over the last six weeks or so, they’re 13th in the comp.
“One of the things that you could probably link to Collingwood is that you just see high chaos in their games, the ball pings between the arcs. They’re happy to cough it up, but they’ll win it back through manic pressure and get that game going.
“In terms of being able to win the ball back between the arcs in 2022 they did it the second most of any team, last year they were fourth most, and to start this season they were third most.
“But over the last six weeks, they’re doing it the second least of any team in the competition.”
To rectify the problem, Hoyne pondered whether the Pies could try and free up a defender to try and win the ball back across half back.
He threw up the names of Darcy Moore and Isaac Quaynor as options with both players operating at nowhere near the level they were in 2023 when they became premiership players and were both named in the All-Australian squad.
“I just wonder whether or not they could look at trying to free someone up like a Tom Stewart to try and get back and start winning the ball across half-back,” Hoyne said.
“(With Darcy Moore) I don’t think he’s been the same player that he was in 2022 (or 2023) and last year he was heading into the finals only just going and this year he’s only just going.
“The other one who is only just going is Isaac Quaynor as well, maybe they could just potentially free him up to help in this aspect of the game.
“They’ve just got a couple of little things to tidy up on that, so we’ll just put that on watch over the next couple of games.”
Collingwood will hope to tidy up down back when they face Essendon at the MCG on Friday night.