Pathetic.

I don't think there's really another way to describe how Collingwood played tonight. The Pies had everything to play for and they played their most lifeless game of the season. Commentators brought up a number of excuses for the Pies - Rhys Palmer playing like a maniac for the Rising Star award, Jeff Farmer playing for a new contract, playing for Jason Johnson, the wide expanses of Subiaco. All of them don't matter. The fact is that Collingwood claim to be a good team with something to play for, and evidence suggests that Fremantle is simply not a good team. To their credit the Dockers did play decent football, but what is frustrating is that Collingwood played so poorly. Losing to a team playing well is nothing to be ashamed of. Losing that badly to a poor team with finals 7 days ago is something that would require a good deal of shame.

Collingwood played terribly all night. Shocking skill errors all night plagued the Woods, as did a lack of intensity around the ball. What killed Collingwood though was its forward 50 entries, which were an absolute joke. Every single time the Pies simply booted it high and long and hoped for the best. You can get away with this if you get the ball in there often enough, but Collingwood couldn't break 40 inside 50s for the night.

Individually everyone bar Leon Davis and Scott Pendlebury were terrible. Davis existed on another plane of existence for a period in the second quarter, but he couldn't sustain the effort all night. Although I will say that his goal in the 2nd term was just about the most amazing thing I've seen all season. Pendlebury worked hard and won a lot of the ball, particularly in the first term. Aside from those two no one could claim to have played well. Josh Fraser made mental errors on numerous occasions, Subiaco seemed to stir up a few too many memories in Paul Medhurst as he reverted to the mediocre Docker of 2006 instead of the potential All-Australian of 2008 he has emerged as. I didn't mind Medders being given a run on the ball, but as is the case with many forwards who go in the midfield, he didn't make smart decisions with the ball. Simple things as a midfielder like using the split second while your being tackled to give the ball to the teammate next to you instead of handballing forward as far as you can Medhurst couldn't get right.

The young foursome of Dawes, McCarthy, Cook and Stanley looked painfully mediocre all night. Dawes didn't display his usually smooth handle of the ball, the disposal of Stanley and Cook was poor, and McCarthy on at least three occasions committed himself too much into going for a diving mark when a stop-and-prop would have sufficed. Rookie mistakes, but at this point in time none of these guys really have much business on a team serious about finals. Shannon Cox actually looked okay, showing decent aerial skills.

The problem with Collingwood right now and especially for the future is this faith in youth. Committing yourself to a younger team is fine, when you take a look at the quality of the youth Collingwood have it doesn't inspire much confidence. OK, we've got Dale Thomas, Scott Pendlebury, Travis Cloke and Marty Clarke, all of which should be All-Australians one day. Heath Shaw should also probably be put in that group. We've got 5 gun young players. But the gap between that group and the next group of youngsters is massive. The group is basically Sean Rusling, Ben Reid, Shannon Cox, Chris Egan, Harry O'Brien, John Anthony, Nathan Brown, Cam Wood, Sharrod Wellingham, John McCarthy, Danny Stanley, Ryan Cook, Chris Dawes, Tyson Goldsack, Brad Dick, Alan Toovey and Sam Iles.

First let me say that I love Harry O'Brien, Tyson Goldsack and especially John Anthony. Anthony will be a reliable 3rd option in the forward line for years to come. O'Brien and Goldsack will be able to handle the 3rd and 4th forwards for the next decade - and that's the baseline estimate. Nathan Brown is a keeper too, once he develops a stronger football IQ. Sharrod Wellingham is a keeper, of this group he's the one who'll probably find himself in the Cloke group before long. Then it gets worse. Iles will be delisted at the end of the year, and in reality Chris Egan and Alan Toovey should probably go to. Rusling would be useful if he could stand up straight for a sustained period of time without snapping something. Reid doesn't have the body or frame of an AFL player. He's Westhoff without a knack for reading the play. Chris Dawes can't kick a football, he's a Tarrant without the speed or presence. With Davis, Thomas, Medhurst and Didak at the club I can't really see a need for Brad Dick. The group of McCarthy, Stanley and Cook doesn't inspire any confidence at all. And Cam Wood is getting beaten for a spot in the team by Chris Bryan.

Honestly this set of youth doesn't look like it can win a premiership. This is a huge problem because what will be the 'veteran group' in three years consists of Josh Fraser, Paul Medhurst, Nick Maxwell and Dane Swan - that's it (Didak too if he's still around). My belated point is this - with the way that Geelong, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs (with Carlton, Essendon and Richmond all to join shortly) are positioned to dominate the next three years, Collingwood's list as it is now has a ceiling of 4th position. If Collingwood wants to keep up with the competition over the next 2-3 years it has to make something happen. And tonight watching Rhys Palmer, Ibbotson, Hinkley, Carr and Schammer dominate the stoppages I sure thought it would be nice to see Ben Cousins racking up the clearances in black and white next year.