In the long arc of institutional life, what looks like catastrophe often turns out to be correction. In 2020, Collingwood Football Club was forced by financial mismanagement to trade away several prominent players for what seemed like a pittance, drawing widespread condemnation from analysts and supporters alike. Two years on, the club stands in finals contention, its salary cap healthy, its list young and deep — a quiet vindication of decisions made under duress and dismissed as incompetence. The painful dismantling, it turns out, was the necessary price of renewal.
Collingwood's 2020 'disaster' trade period now looks like genius
A mess seldom seen, now a genuine premiership contender.
Mark
So Collingwood traded away Adam Treloar, a star midfielder, along with three other players in 2020. Why were they forced to do that?
Mimi
Their salary cap had blown out. They'd spent heavily to bring Dayne Beams back to the club in 2018, and it had thrown their entire list-building strategy into chaos. They simply had no room left to maneuver.
Luke
But we should be clear—this wasn't a sudden surprise. This was mismanagement over years. They'd made expensive trades to acquire Beams, and that decision had consequences they couldn't escape.
Mark
And the trade itself—what did they actually get back for these players?
Mimi
Officially, pick 14 and a future second-rounder. But the way they got there involved a series of on-trades that made the whole thing look even worse at the time. They traded Treloar and picks to the Western Bulldogs, and gave up Tom Phillips for pick 65. It looked like they were giving away talent for scraps.
Luke
The criticism was intense. David King said he couldn't understand what was happening. Scott Heinrich called it a mess "seldom seen." And Ned Guy, the list manager who made the trades, lost his job over it.
Mark
But then what happened? How did this disaster become genius?
Mimi
The players they traded away mostly didn't perform at their new clubs. Stephenson was dropped repeatedly at North Melbourne. Phillips played four games and was delisted. Bosenavulagi managed 17 games in two years. Only Treloar was the star everyone expected.
Luke
That's important, though—Treloar was genuinely good at the Bulldogs. So the Pies didn't get lucky because the other team made a bad deal. They got lucky because three of the four players they moved on simply didn't develop as expected.
Mark
And the picks they received?
Mimi
Pick 14 became Nick Daicos, who's contending for best and fairest in his first year. And the other pick helped them secure Ollie Henry, who's played 25 games and looks comfortable at the level. Meanwhile, the salary cap crisis was solved.
Luke
But here's the thing—could anyone have known in November 2020 that Stephenson would struggle at North Melbourne? Or that Phillips would play four games? Those weren't certainties. The Pies benefited from outcomes that weren't guaranteed.
Mark
So was Guy a genius or was he lucky?
Mimi
Probably both. He made the right structural decision—the club needed to clear space and rebuild. But whether the specific players he traded away would underperform, and whether the picks would become Daicos and Henry, those were unknowns. The decision was sound; the execution was fortunate.
El Pulso
- A salary cap crisis forced Collingwood to trade four players — including star midfielder Adam Treloar — in a move so damaging to the club's reputation that their list manager resigned within months.
- Analysts and journalists were scathing, with one describing the trade period as evidence of dysfunction 'seldom seen' in the competition, and supporters were openly furious.
- The picks received in return quietly became Nick Daicos, a first-year sensation, and Ollie Henry, a composed senior contributor — outcomes no one had anticipated at the time of the trades.
- Three of the four traded players largely disappeared from AFL relevance, their underperformance at new clubs reframing the original deals in an entirely different light.
- Under coach Craig McRae, Collingwood has rebuilt into a genuine premiership contender with one of the healthiest age profiles in the competition, the structural pain of 2020 now looking like its foundation.
In the long arc of institutional life, what looks like catastrophe often turns out to be correction. In 2020, Collingwood Football Club was forced by financial mismanagement to trade away several prominent players for what seemed like a pittance, drawing widespread condemnation from analysts and supporters alike. Two years on, the club stands in finals contention, its salary cap healthy, its list young and deep — a quiet vindication of decisions made under duress and dismissed as incompetence. The painful dismantling, it turns out, was the necessary price of renewal.
In November 2020, Collingwood faced a financial reckoning. Their salary cap had grown beyond control, and the only path forward was to trade away talent that the club could no longer afford. Adam Treloar, Tom Phillips, Jaidyn Stephenson, and Atu Bosenavulagi were all moved on in exchange for pick 14 and a future second-round selection — a return that looked, at the time, like the spoils of a disaster.
The criticism was swift and severe. Respected analysts called the situation unprecedented. Journalists described it as evidence of deep organizational dysfunction. List manager Ned Guy defended the moves as part of a longer plan, but few were persuaded, and he resigned from the role within months. The club's supporters were left to wonder how a team that had played in the 2018 Grand Final had arrived at such a low point.
But the story that followed confounded expectations. Phillips played just four games the next season before being delisted. Stephenson, on a lucrative long-term contract at North Melbourne, was dropped repeatedly and never recaptured his earlier promise. Bosenavulagi averaged fewer than nine disposals per game across two seasons before fading from the competition. Treloar remained a genuine star at the Western Bulldogs — the one trade that delivered what was promised — but the broader picture was one of quiet collapse for those who had left.
Meanwhile, the picks Collingwood received became Nick Daicos, who contended for the club's best and fairest in his debut season, and Ollie Henry, who settled into senior football with ease. A wave of young, affordable players — McCreery, Lipinski, Johnson, Murphy, Ginnivan, Josh Daicos — filled the list with energy and depth. The salary cap, once a source of crisis, was now under control. The club's age profile had become one of the strongest in the competition.
Under Craig McRae, appointed in 2021, Collingwood transformed from a club in disarray into a preliminary finalist. The decisions that had drawn so much scorn — made under pressure, in public, against a tide of criticism — had turned out to be the right ones. The rebuild had worked, and the painful trade period of 2020 looked less like a catastrophe than the moment the club chose, however reluctantly, to begin again.
In November 2020, Collingwood Football Club faced a reckoning. The club's salary cap had swollen beyond its means, and the only way out was to dismantle what looked like a competitive list. Over the course of a brutal trade period, the Magpies shipped out Adam Treloar, a star midfielder in his prime; Tom Phillips, a reliable accumulator; Jaidyn Stephenson, the recent Rising Star winner; and Atu Bosenavulagi, a young prospect with potential. In return, they received pick 14 and a future second-round selection—a haul that looked, on its face, like the price of catastrophe.
The math didn't work. Ned Guy, Collingwood's list manager at the time, had orchestrated a series of moves that left analysts and journalists scrambling to understand how a club that had reached the 2018 Grand Final could have painted itself into such a corner. David King, a two-time North Melbourne premiership player and respected analyst, was blunt: "I can't believe what's happened at Collingwood." Scott Heinrich, writing for The Guardian, was harsher still, describing the trade period as evidence of either profound incompetence or organizational dysfunction so severe that "Collingwood have got themselves into a mess seldom seen." The club's supporters were furious. Guy defended the moves as part of a larger plan, but few believed him. The damage to his reputation was swift and lasting—he would resign from his position within months, his tenure at the club ending after less than four years.
Twenty-two months later, Collingwood was playing in a semi-final, still a genuine chance at the premiership. The players the club had traded away told a different story than anyone had predicted. Phillips played just four games in 2021 and was delisted. Stephenson, who signed a lucrative five-year deal with North Melbourne, was dropped repeatedly and never recaptured the form that had made him a prospect. Bosenavulagi managed 17 games across two seasons, averaging 8.9 disposals per game. Treloar remained a star—the Bulldogs got exactly what they paid for—but the other three had largely vanished from the AFL landscape.
Meanwhile, the picks Collingwood received became Nick Daicos, who would contend for the club's best and fairest award in his first season, and Ollie Henry, who had played 25 senior games and looked at home at the level. The salary cap crisis that had forced the club's hand was resolved. The age profile of the list, once a concern, had become one of the healthiest in the competition since 2010. Young players like Beau McCreery, Pat Lipinski, Ash Johnson, Nathan Murphy, Jack Ginnivan, and Josh Daicos had become essential pieces of the puzzle, none of them straining the salary cap, all of them contributing to the club's rise.
Under Craig McRae, who arrived as coach in 2021, Collingwood had transformed from a club in structural disarray into a contender. McRae's coaching was sharp enough to earn him consideration for coach of the year. The preliminary final loomed. The question that hung over the 2020 trade period—how could a club have made such a catastrophic error?—had been answered, though not in the way anyone expected. Guy's much-maligned decisions, made under duress and in the face of public scorn, had actually been the right ones. The band-aid had needed to be ripped off. The club had needed to burn down and rebuild. And it had worked.
Citas Notables
I can't believe what's happened at Collingwood. I can't understand where they're at right now.— David King, analyst
Collingwood have got themselves into a mess seldom seen.— Scott Heinrich, The Guardian
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Economy & Finance