Taylor and Collica

[GoEagles]

Gday Hawk Fans,

Can you please tell me a bit about the Eagles 2 recruits in Richard Taylor and Michael Collica? Were they fairly popular at the club? Were you disappointed to hear that they had been traded? What positions do they play best at? Have they had any major injuries in the past?

I know it seemed that both had dud 2000's, but Taylor had more than 450 possessions in 22 games (came 2nd in the club champion awards behind Smurf Crawford) whilst Collica also played the full 22 games in 1999.

[Grendel]

GoEagles, this question actually was on the main board sort of, under the topic 'Eagles recruits' anyway heres what i wrote in reply to that thread

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Collica, woeful foot skills, good hands, maybe lacks a yard. Will either be a handy half back or nothing else. Cant play any other possie.
Dickie Knee Ritchie Taylor may be handy. Can tag a smaller bloke adequatly or be a reasonable rover. Foot skills are okay without being anything special. Might have lost a yard of pace with the knee recos. One things for sure, will play his guts out for you all game every game.

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Hope thats a bit of help.

[Pessimistic]

Taylor was/is a big favourite with Hawks fans - He's certainly a worker and while the hawks midfield was maligned in 2000 it carried us for much of the previous few seasons. Collica looked good when he played but we didn't see much of him in 2000

Wishing them well in the new year with the eagles (though I'm not suere I would extend that to K Judge)

[elt]

Also both seemed to suffer a fall from grace under the new coach. After all Taylor went from being runner up in the B&F in 1999 to being traded in 2000. I think the reasons would be Collica's lack of positional flexibility (as already mentioned) and Taylor's perceived defensiveness as a midfielder.

I am sorry to see Taylor go and will certainly never forget "that smother" from Collica to save the game against West Coast.