How has Collingwood managed to be so successful since 2001 while Carlton and Essendon have not?

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From a Dons perspective, for starters we held onto Sheedy too long.

Instead of rebuilding post 2002, topping up with the likes of Mark Alvey, Allan, Justin Murphy, Zantuck, Cupido, etc for one last crack obviously didn't work.

We also went over the salary cap around that time, seems like we tried to paper over the cracks by being forced to offload Caracella, Dimma and Heffernan and their contracts to remedy the breach by bringing in the above who were mostly past their best.

Among that there were other odd list mgt. descions, like bringing in Camporeale, Salmon, Mal Michael and many busts at the draft. (To be fair all clubs have duds)

As a result we had a dearth of quality draft picks to build a core group of talent that were taken in consistent drafts. What we got were glimpses of promise with cobbled together, at best middling teams of aging stars, solid soldiers and a small handful of promising players in between. Balance was out of whack, good on their absolute best day to trouble the best but inconsistent and a clear rung or two below the best.

Not sure how much of that is on Sheeds, a misaligned board, Dodo,etc but that 02-05 period contributed to setting us back years.

When the club finally had to be dragged kicking and screaming into getting rid of Sheedy and taking our medicine, Hird's shadow was looming large for a romantic return after Knights. And we all know what happened next.
 
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I classify West Coast are a very successful football club despite those years spent bottom four.

Since 2001:
14th, 8th, 7th, 7th, 2nd (runners up), 1st (premiership), 3rd, 15th, 11th, 16th, 4th, 5th, 13th, 9th, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 2nd (premiership), 5th, 5th, 9th, 17th, 18th.

Just to put that it into perspective, take Fremantle for example:
16th, 13th, 5th, 9th, 10th, 3rd, 9th, 10th, 3rd, 11th, 14th, 14th, 6th, 11th, 7th, 3rd (runners up), 4th, 1st, 16th, 14th, 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 5th, 10th.



You can see a trend of consistency with West Coast. It's highly likely they are about to experience their worst drought in history. A similar progression to what Fremantle experienced between 2016-2021.
Dockers finished bottom 4 in 2002. Yeah it was 13th but they got 9 wins and 13 losses.

Then comes the 2003-07 period of 5th, 9th , 10th and 3rd and 11th. Should of made finals every year from 2003-06.

But yeah.... 8 finals spots each year means 10 sides miss out.

Eagles will at least spend this season and 2024 before slowly rising up again.
 

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The Pies were a kick away from being ahead of the Eagles on that list and I'd imagine on win percentage they'd be above Richmond, Brisbane, West Coast and not too far behind Sydney and even Hawthorn.

They've had 4 eras of contention (if you count last year) in that period, it's a pretty good run.

4 clubs have found themselves in freakish dynasty mode, of the rest the Pies are right up there.
I think Eagles are above Sydney, Brisbane and Collingwood since 1990 on win %.
 
They would be familiar with the ground. But teams like Collingwood and Richmond can just build a game style just suited to one ground. Thats harder to do if you play 6 or 7 home games at a smaller indoor venue. It just has to be a disadvantage and they obviously dont play finals at Marvel. The comp is too even, in Richmonds 3 flags we had to win our final match of the season just to finish top 4, there isnt much margain for error.

I get it for the smaller clubs that play at Marvel, but Essendon and Carlton are choosing to have this disadvantage.
Doesn't explain Geelong's dominance, when they play even fewer games at the G and their home is a much different size and shape to the G. Marvel has similar dimensions, is just a bit smaller. Don't seem to struggle at the G. Football Park and Subiaco were also long and thin.
 
From a Dons perspective, for starters we held onto Sheedy too long.

Instead of rebuilding post 2002, topping up with the likes of Mark Alvey, Allan, Justin Murphy, Zantuck, Cupido, etc for one last crack obviously didn't work.

We also went over the salary cap around that time, seems like we tried to paper over the cracks by being forced to offload Caracella, Dimma and Heffernan and their contracts to remedy the breach by bringing in the above who were mostly past their best.

Among that there were other odd list mgt. descions, like bringing in Camporeale, Salmon, Mal Michael and many busts at the draft. (To be fair all clubs have duds)

As a result we had a dearth of quality draft picks to build a core group of talent that were taken in consistent drafts. What we got were glimpses of promise with cobbled together, at best middling teams of aging stars, solid soldiers and a small handful of promising players in between. Balance was out of whack, good on their absolute best day to trouble the best but inconsistent and a clear rung or two below the best.

Not sure how much of that is on Sheeds, a misaligned board, Dodo,etc but that 02-05 period contributed to setting us back years.

When the club finally had to be dragged kicking and screaming into getting rid of Sheedy and taking our medicine, Hird's shadow was looming large for a romantic return after Knights. And we all know what happened next.
Weren't they still good in 2002? I don't really remember. Hope we don't spend 20 plus years in the wilderness lol.
 
I classify West Coast are a very successful football club despite those years spent bottom four.

Since 2001:
14th, 8th, 7th, 7th, 2nd (runners up), 1st (premiership), 3rd, 15th, 11th, 16th, 4th, 5th, 13th, 9th, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 2nd (premiership), 5th, 5th, 9th, 17th, 18th.

Just to put that it into perspective, take Fremantle for example:
16th, 13th, 5th, 9th, 10th, 3rd, 9th, 10th, 3rd, 11th, 14th, 14th, 6th, 11th, 7th, 3rd (runners up), 4th, 1st, 16th, 14th, 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 5th, 10th.



You can see a trend of consistency with West Coast. It's highly likely they are about to experience their worst drought in history. A similar progression to what Fremantle experienced between 2016-2021.
Our longest premiership drought is 12 years (twice), shortest of any side. If we pass that without contending I'll start to worry...
 
Essendon have made the finals pretty regularly since 2001. We made the finals 01-04, 09,11,13 (excluded), 14, 17,19 and 21. We haven't managed to win one but it's not as if we've been bottom of the ladder all that time either.
True, they just seem so consistently mediocre, always on the verge of emerging but never delivering.
 
Start preparing for that eventuality! You're in a massive hole, it's a long way back
Luckily this is AFL, not EPL. Teams don't usually sit near the bottom for too long, like your St Kildas of the past. I mean, aside from Gold Coast, every team has made finals at least once in the past decade.
 
Luckily this is AFL, not EPL. Teams don't usually sit near the bottom for too long, like your St Kildas of the past. I mean, aside from Gold Coast, every team has made finals at least once in the past decade.
Just realised Carlton finished 8th - last top 8 finish - in 2013. Damn, no finals in 10 years. Thought they had at least 1 or 2 appearances since then.
 

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Just to add what others have said:

Off field stability and accountability goes a long way to becoming a success on the field. We have seen this happen at the Hawks, Cats, Tigers, Swans...etc.

The two aren't mutually exclusive however, Collingwood have only won two flags since 1958 - let that sink in for a minute. What they have been is competitive for the best part of two decades now - thus, any given year, they and their supporters feel like they are in the hunt which goes a long way to building big crowds and your supporter base.

Essendon has generally been a very successful club "off field" - our lack of on field success dates back to the last three years of Sheedy's mammoth 27 season tenure. He had too much power and stayed too long, we all know what followed - it's not rocket science. The fact that we have over 70k members and still pull huge crowds after such a prolonged period of mediocrity is a testament to our loyal supporter base that will only grow once on filed success arrives.
 
Carlton and Essendon have had major scandals that cost them draft picks and have been run poorly, Collingwood haven't.

Eddie has a big role in where they are. They were a rabble when he took over and he was already one of the biggest powerbrokers in the AFL. He pretty much got what he wanted because of his media profile. Most footy fans don't even know who their own President is but they knew exactly who Eddie was and who he supported.

The most favourable fixture in the league (no trips to Tassie or Geelong), a monopoly on King's Birthday with Melbourne, a training facility outside the G, among others. The AFL changed the rules of NGAs and scrapped Sunday Night Football outside of pub hols because he bitched about it.

The only reason Buckley survived after 4 years of not making finals is because Eddie didn't want to admit his Malthouse succession plan was a failure, but that's a different issue altogether. Eddie got what Eddie wanted. He was remarkably good at his job.

When you consider their advantages, 1 flag in 30 years is a pitiful return, especially when none of their GF opponents have the MCG as their home ground.
 
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Carlton and Essendon have had major scandals that cost them draft picks and have been run poorly, Collingwood haven't.

Eddie has a big role in where they are. They were a rabble when he took over and he was already one of the biggest powerbrokers in the AFL. He pretty much got what he wanted because of his media profile. Most footy fans don't even know who their own President is but they knew exactly who Eddie was and who he supported.

The most favourable fixture in the league (no trips to Tassie or Geelong), a monopoly on King's Birthday with Melbourne, a training facility outside the G, among others. The AFL changed the rules of NGAs and scrapped Sunday Night Football outside of pub hols because he bitched about it.

The only reason Buckley survived after 4 years of not making finals is because Eddie didn't want to admit his Malthouse succession plan was a failure, but that's a different issue altogether. Eddie got what Eddie wanted. He was remarkably good at his job.

When you consider their advantages, 1 flag in 30 years is a pitiful return, especially when none of their GF opponents have the MCG as their home ground.
You forgot to emphasise Eddie’s trashing of Collingwood ‘s Vic Park home for 100+ years + move to a basketball centre in Richmond.

Eddie sold the soul of the club to chase some weird corporatised image, Manchester United of AU was his target, god knows why, the whole club is kind of bland now + struggles to have an identity, though the fans try their best on game day.

So the pies have had their own leadership disasters.

Only Richmond has been well managed AND not turned their back on their history.

EFC play out of a hanger in Tullamarine now ffs. How do fans or players get behind that- so obviously just another detached commercial entity that pays lipservive to the old EFC when it wants your membership subs or game day tix.

You can’t get behind that, not really, no coincidence at all that Richmond is the most successful of the big 4 in the last decades.
 
You forgot to emphasise Eddie’s trashing of Collingwood ‘s Vic Park home for 100+ years + move to a basketball centre in Richmond.

Eddie sold the soul of the club to chase some weird corporatised image, Manchester United of AU was his target, god knows why, the whole club is kind of bland now + struggles to have an identity, though the fans try their best on game day.

So the pies have had their own leadership disasters.

Only Richmond has been well managed AND not turned their back on their history.

EFC play out of a hanger in Tullamarine now ffs. How do fans or players get behind that- so obviously just another detached commercial entity that pays lipservive to the old EFC when it wants your membership subs or game day tix.

You can’t get behind that, not really, no coincidence at all that Richmond is the most successful of the big 4 in the last decades.
The tigers only stopped being a basket case because they modernised in the many of the same ways Eddie modernised the pies, 10-15 years later.

And the turning back on history stuff is a bit rich when the Tigers are demolishing the Jack Dyer stand at Punt Road, and threatened to leave unless the council approved.
 
Have they really been that successful? 1 flag since 2001

The amount of worship for the current team and Mcrae in particular is kind of sickening you would think they are coming off a three-peat the way people talk about them
When they pull out “ ohh they’re now everyones second team” I want to vomit, collingwood fans want to vomit. How out of touch are these ****ing idiots ?
 
Have they really been that successful? 1 flag since 2001

The amount of worship for the current team and Mcrae in particular is kind of sickening you would think they are coming off a three-peat the way people talk about them
Worship? What are people supposed to say? "Gee i wish we appointed Vossy instead"
 

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How has Collingwood managed to be so successful since 2001 while Carlton and Essendon have not?

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