Spatfers
All Australian
- Mar 16, 2016
- 644
- 646
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- BMFC
Looking at our decline over the past 6 years, there has been many factors, but possibly none more so than the absence of Dane Swan.
Swanny was one of our greats and his influence was always going to be missed, but perhaps the most by Buckley himself. Some stats that paint the picture:
Dane Swan
2013 - 14 wins, in best players 12 times, most disposals 9 times. (played 23 games)
2014 - 11 wins, in best players 5 times, most disposals twice. (played 17 games)
2015 - 10 wins, in best players 8 times, most disposals 5 times. (played 21 games)
I couldn't find match reports for 2012 that had best players (useless afl.com!), but considering he came third in the Brownlow (and might have won it had he not got himself suspended for 2 games), I'd assume it was a pretty good season.
Perhaps more worrying than this is that this is the worst start to a season under Buckley, last year without Swanny was only 1 win better. 2015 and 2014 with Swanny we'd won 5 in the first 8 rounds. That doesn't bode well for a comeback.
As the old saying goes 'you don't know what you've got til it's gone'. Looks like when Swanny went down in that horror show against Sydney in round 1 last year, Buckley's coaching career went down with him.
Swanny was one of our greats and his influence was always going to be missed, but perhaps the most by Buckley himself. Some stats that paint the picture:
Dane Swan
2013 - 14 wins, in best players 12 times, most disposals 9 times. (played 23 games)
2014 - 11 wins, in best players 5 times, most disposals twice. (played 17 games)
2015 - 10 wins, in best players 8 times, most disposals 5 times. (played 21 games)
I couldn't find match reports for 2012 that had best players (useless afl.com!), but considering he came third in the Brownlow (and might have won it had he not got himself suspended for 2 games), I'd assume it was a pretty good season.
Perhaps more worrying than this is that this is the worst start to a season under Buckley, last year without Swanny was only 1 win better. 2015 and 2014 with Swanny we'd won 5 in the first 8 rounds. That doesn't bode well for a comeback.
As the old saying goes 'you don't know what you've got til it's gone'. Looks like when Swanny went down in that horror show against Sydney in round 1 last year, Buckley's coaching career went down with him.