How thrifty Magpies turned salary-cap disaster into a grand final list

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Key points

• Collingwood were in salary cap strife in 2020, prompting an infamous player firesale.
• Those trade calls have since been proven the right ones, with a series of other thrifty moves following.
• Grand final rivals Brisbane comparatively swung for the fences with a series of high-profile recruits.

Collingwood have become the AFL’s answer to those people who populate garage sales on weekends.

It might seem strange to describe these powerhouse Magpies as thrifty, with their shiny AIA Vitality Centre digs and 100,000-strong black and white army, but that trait is a significant part of their journey to Saturday’s grand final against the home-run hitting Brisbane Lions.

Darcy Cameron’s breakout 2022 season convinced the Pies they could trade Brodie Grundy.Credit: Getty Images

Charlie Cameron, dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, Joe Daniher and Josh Dunkley all arrived at the Gabba via trade in an extraordinary period since the end of 2017, whereas Collingwood have – through necessity – sifted through the bargain bins to fill a series of holes.

Darcy Cameron became a Magpie before the club’s infamous firesale of 2020 – which has since been proven undeniably to be the right call – but his recruitment fits with what came next.

Cameron even became a key part in how Graham Wright, who replaced Ned Guy as list boss among his wider duties as general manager of football, remedied the tangled web that was Collingwood’s salary cap.

Wright finished what Guy started when he shipped Brodie Grundy and his million-dollar-a-season contract last year to Melbourne, who were reeling from losing unicorn ruckman Luke Jackson and on the lookout for Max Gawn’s new sidekick. The Pies agreed to pay a good chunk of Grundy’s deal, just to get him off the books.

They were confident enough in Cameron’s emergence to believe they could do without two-time All-Australian Grundy – and at a much more palatable cost.

There was some outside grumbling about Grundy’s exit, but nothing like the PR dumpster fire that followed Guy offloading Adam Treloar (Western Bulldogs), Jaidyn Stephenson (North Melbourne) and Tom Phillips (Hawthorn).

Guy, a former leading player agent, technically quit his role in May the following year – then stayed on until after the mid-season draft – but, in truth, tendered his resignation immediately after that most tumultuous of trade periods and had not changed his mind months later.

He is now the AFL’s player movement manager, and drawing rave reviews from the league’s list bosses.

Tom Mitchell has slotted seamlessly into Collingwood’s midfield.Credit: Getty Images

Wright’s status as a 1990 premiership hero, on top of his mastermind reputation from his Hawthorn days, certainly helped his cause with the fan base, as did the litany of recruits he has brought in.

Patrick Lipinski, Tom Mitchell, Bobby Hill, Dan McStay, Billy Frampton, Nathan Kreuger and the mustachioed one, Oleg Markov, became Magpies under Wright’s watch. Frampton is ex-Lion McStay’s injury replacement for the grand final, while Kreuger is the only other player from this group who won’t play.

Each of these recruits filled a need, whether it is Mitchell adding grunt to a midfield that struggled with the contested stuff last year, to the pizzazz Hill delivers to a somewhat-starchy Collingwood attack, and McStay’s marking ability up forward.

The common theme is how opportunistic the Pies were on every occasion. Hawthorn even paid about $250,000 worth of Mitchell’s wage this year, sources familiar with the situation told this masthead in December.

Lipinski (Western Bulldogs), Frampton (Adelaide) and Kreuger (Geelong) could not get a regular game at their previous stops; Hill wanted to move to Melbourne from Sydney for more family support; McStay was an unrestricted free agent; and Markov was a pre-season supplemental selection period find.

It took Charlie Dean’s injury misfortune for the dashing Markov – who has played a career-most 22 matches and counting this season, and earned himself another one-year deal – to sign with the Pies instead of the Blues. Those players were acquired for the sum of Ollie Henry, picks 41, 41, 43, 43 (in consecutive years) and 50, and future second- and third-round selections, while also receiving picks 25, 40 and 55. That is great business, however you spin it.

There is, of course, more to this recruiting story than trading in that motley crew.

Having father-son access to the Daicos brothers, Josh and Nick, and captain Darcy Moore, as well as being able to match a bid on Next Generation Academy graduate Isaac Quaynor certainly gave them a kick-a-long.

But the Brisbane Lions enjoyed those advantages, too, with father-son pair Will Ashcroft and Jaspa Fletcher, plus academy products Harris Andrews, Eric Hipwood, Keidean Coleman and Jack Payne. Ashcroft’s younger brother, Levi, is set to be a top-five pick next year as well.

Payne was part of recruiting manager Steve Conole’s bumper 2017 draft crop that included No.1 pick Cam Rayner, Zac Bailey and Brandon Starcevich.

“It was a terrific one for the footy club,” Conole told this masthead. “We walked out of the draft that year pretty pleased and content with how it unfolded.”

The Lions, like all good clubs, unearthed some diamonds in the rough as well – Linc McCarthy and Jarryd Lyons, among them – and beat rival clubs to the punch to score Conor McKenna’s signature in his AFL return. Ex-Hawk Jack Gunston hasn’t delivered as they would have hoped, but he was a free agency addition, too.

Cam Rayner headlined Brisbane’s brilliant 2017 draft haul.Credit: Getty Images

Conole modestly played down his part in the Lions’ rise, passing most of the credit to list manager Dom Ambrogio’s annual trade coups.

The draft remains a key plank in any list build, but as Alastair Clarkson said in 2020: “The way forward for all footy clubs is to complement your current list. You can’t just go to the draft.

“There’s not a side in the competition that can do that now. It’s not a pure draft any more – it’s compromised everywhere – so every side in the competition has injected young players through the draft, as well as complementing their group with players from other clubs that are either discarded or unwanted.”

Not every club strikes the right balance, and certainly not all the time, as Clarkson and Wright can attest from their final years at Hawthorn. But the Magpies and Lions are in the grand final for a reason.

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