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Three steps back, it’s time to reset the pies

A lost semi-final that year followed a lost preliminary final last year that followed a lost grand final the year before. It suggests that a club is withdrawing from the competition. This gradual regression in the finals has the feel of 2013 and it is necessary to fill up the list.

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Buckley agreed that the Magpies needed a few more players almost everywhere except for defense. Worryingly, he seemed to doubt whether the draft would give them the answers they needed.

Hopefully he didn’t mean that, because Port is a modern example of a deliberate design of an approach. After false starts with other strategies, they decided to buy in valuable players – Jared Polec, Chad Wingard – and attacked the draft with early picks. They were smart enough to do this in a very good year of design and then chose wisely. They’ve renovated, not rebuilt, and the new Reno looks great.

Changes to gaming staff and setting a wage limit that is constantly increasing (an agreement with Dayne Beams would help) are important issues to be resolved, but a discussion about coaching also needs to be held.

Collingwood’s midfield and forward line fell out 90 percent of the year. They had few wins when they looked like a team with a plan and confidence in how to move the ball. It’s not just because of the players.

Buckley is signed for the next year for him to stay, but like after 2017 they have to change the dynamics of the advice he receives. The loss of Justin Longmuir from the coaching box that year was significant. You have to look at the management of the midfield, the ball movement and the strikers and change the mix.

Wings cut off: Jaidyn Stephenson (center) leaves with his Magpie team-mates after losing to the Cats on Saturday night.

Wings cut off: Jaidyn Stephenson (center) leaves with his Magpie team-mates after losing to the Cats on Saturday night.Recognition:Getty Images

Was Brodie Grundy injured or was it the stifling intransigence of football in hub life? This is an important question as in a financially regulated environment you cannot afford to have any of your highest paid players have such a year.

Jaidyn Stephenson has had a very good year now, a year of shame and a year of disappointment. From the outside, Stephenson looks like a player who won the Rising Star and thought he arrived. The next season will be decisive for him.

The next big questions concern the re-signing of Darcy Moore and Jordan De Goey. The club is confident that Moore will sign again soon. De Goey is a more annoying topic not only for Collingwood but other clubs as well. A rare match winner, he will face court later this month for indecent assault.

QUESTIONS FOR CATS

Geelong’s problem, if you can call it that, was that they played so well while their opponents played so bad that they will wonder if they have addressed some of the worries they have had from the qualifying final last week had.

Deep dive: Rhys Stanley tries a trademark under pressure from Taylor Adams of Collingwood (right).

Deep dive: Rhys Stanley tries a trademark under pressure from Taylor Adams of Collingwood (right).Recognition:Getty Images

You were almost flawless from the first to the last jump in the gabba. Collingwood did not challenge his midfield or take advantage of fringe players like Port did.

What can be said with certainty is that her regular Achilles heel in the jerk on Saturday was nothing like that.

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Rhys Stanley was great for the second week in a row. He is so important to them because with Mark Blicavs they have a double act of sportiness and a difference to the other three teams.

Tom Hawkins kicked carefully. That’s all. The best part about a great win was that it gave a confident player like Hawkins the game he needed in front of goal.

The midfield was so commanding that they could afford to keep Patrick Dangerfield up front. With Dangerfield playing like that, it’s reasonable to ask if he’s a better striker than a midfielder anyway. Good players do that, they leave you feeling like you can’t imagine being better used anywhere else where they play.

HILLS FOR CLIMBING

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St. Kilda’s recruits from their aggressive off-season deals have done largely well.

Even Dan Hannebery got over his injuries to make it back to the final and was very good last week.

But Bradley Hill was a disappointment. He had a poor final and while Brett Ratten offered a valid defense against him earlier in the year, his season is best reflected in where Hill ended best and fairest at the Saints – outside the top ten.

MILD MAP

The best four teams of the season are the last four teams. Again.

This undermines the multi-year talk of a wildcard round to determine the last places in the final.

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