First off let Me just say I am not a writer, have never had much interest in writing, but as our two writers Luke & Dave are now writing for the Collingwood website and there seems to be little interest in writing for Nick’s Collingwood Page I thought I better have a crack at it and  as we drag ourselves out of summer and get ready to go-around again it’s probably time we have a bit of a re-cap of the off-off season going-ons (to many hyphens? Meh it’ll get worse) for those of us, like myself that try and put Footy away for the summer.

Likely best to start with the “Outs”, first off we had Benny J retire during last season, went out on his terms, just like he trained :) Then we had some Premiership heroes “retired” in Didak and Jolly, Dids went out with some Class but kicking, Jolly went out kicking and squealing and it might take some time to get the toys back in the cot there. The Club also retired Krakouer and Russell, Krak will be missed and the faithful will probably not even notice Russell is not there, we also delisted a couple of rookies in Hartley, Richmond and Gault, Gault got re-listed on the rookie list and unfortunately with a name like Richmond, Richmond was never going to make it at Collingwood :/

Collingwood also went hard at it in the trade period, losing a few Premiership heroes but picking up some likely lads and the odd choice draft pick, we traded Heath- the smother of the millennium- Shaw to the GWS for a likely prospect in Taylor Adams, he looks to be a ready to go Midfielder, we also trading Jackson Paine to Brisbane for Patrick Karnezis and traded pick 44 to Sydney for Jesse White who has always been talked about as having potential, let’s hope he can put something on the park for us.
Probably the biggest move over the off-season was Dale Thomas’ defection to the hated filth, it has caused a bit of debate on the forum whether we should or shouldn’t  bag him out for leaving, personally I’ll bag any filth player and we should leave it there, we did pick up a cherry draft pick out of the Free Agency Compensation which no doubt gave Hine a chubby.

Here’s a full list of “Outs and Ins” from the Collingwood Website:
OUT:
Ben Johnson (retired)
Dale Thomas (free agent – Carlton)
Jackson Paine (traded – Brisbane)
Heath Shaw (traded – Greater Western Sydney)
Alan Didak (delisted)
Corey Gault (delisted – added to the rookie list)
Darren Jolly (delisted)
Andrew Krakouer (delisted)
Jordan Russell (delisted)
Michael Hartley (delisted rookie)
Ben Richmond (delisted rookie)
Draft picks No. 11 (West Coast), No. 31 (West Coast), No. 44 (Sydney), No. 49 (West Coast)

IN:
Taylor Adams (Greater Western Sydney)
Sam Dwyer (promoted rookie)
Nathan Freeman (Sandringham U18, National Draft selection No 10)
Corey Gault (Collingwood; delisted then rookie listed)
Patrick Karnezis (Brisbane)
Tom Langdon (Sandringham U18, National Draft selection No. 65)
Jonathon Marsh (East Fremantle, National Draft selection No. 77)
Adam Oxley (promoted rookie)
Matthew Scharenberg (Glenelg, National Draft selection No. 6)
Jesse White (Sydney)

Scharenberg being our first pick (6) will wear the famous number 35 for the year (yes Dwayne it is a tradition) although  it may be some time before we see him run out with the seniors as He has had some foot surgery, Our second pick (10) we spent on the confident Nathan Freeman who looks almost ready to rock, Our other picks 65 and 77 we used on Langdon and Marsh with Langdon looking to be a steady headed Back and Marsh looking like he could be anything.
I have to at this point mention Sam Dwyer and his elevation to the Senior list, I’m a big fan of Dwyers and I love the story of a mature age rookie getting His chance at the big time and making the most of the opportunity presented to him, it has all the makings of a great movie, especially if He can become a Premiership hero, make it happen Collingwood, make it happen!.

We also get back a few fit and firing players, we missed Beams for most of last year which was a huge blow, from all reports he’s having a ripper pre-season and I hope we get to see another solid year from our ’12 Club Champion. We also get back Tooves the Premiership Champion from a knee reco and I hope He can get back to his best form, we certainly missed His closing down abilities last season.
Add to that  Fasolo will get the chance to get His career back on track after missing most of the ’13 season with a serious foot injury.

I think that about sums up the list changes, we lost some Greats, some not so’s and gained some new blood and hopefuls.
There has also been a lot of talk about how this is now “Buckley’s Team” and from here on in the Buck stops with Him as journos like to cliché it, But it was His team the moment He took over and I think all We have seen in this off-season is Him saying “get your crap together or get out” and from a long time (long suffering?) supporter I think it is fair enough, We need more silverware in the cupboard and player playing for themselves and not “buying in” are not going to get the job done. But that’s just My opinion, for an opinion that suits you I’d go with your own :)

Speaking of the great man, Bucks that is, Collingwood have just extended His contract by a couple of years and that will take it till the end of 2016, add to that the great Sir Scott Burns has returned to the Club in the role Assistant Coach and the Coaching panel looks very stable and capable of getting the job done.

This off-season has been quite remarkable with Collingwood seemingly being able to avoid much of the controversy and rumour mongering it has been afflicted with by the media over the last decade or so, maybe the boys are getting their crap together or maybe it is just the journos have run out of ideas, or maybe a bit of both, but I have enjoyed it.

Not much else I can think of other than Collingwood made money on the back of a new Membership Record and the other Clubs want said money, the AFL are continuing to look at Collingwood to bank roll miss-managed and poorly performing Clubs and ignore the hard work Collingwood has had to put in to get to where it is today as the Largest and Best Club in the land :)

Anyways I’ll sign off, if there are any errors or omissions in this “article” I’m sure someone will point it out, it is after all the internet :)

Steve