- Sep 6, 2018
- 685
- 664
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
1. 30 is a myth:
In the modern game assuming a player takes decent care of themselves its usually 33 where players tend to fall off a cliff. For really exceptional players who take amazing care of themselves, I think with some luck 36 is realistic albeit their importance in the 22 for onfield contribution tends to diminish from ages 33-36, eg. Travis Boak. Here are the ages of our veterans as of the start of next season. Clearly the top 4 in age are pretty old, and basically could retire at any point, though I wouldn't rule any of them out to play on in 2026, however I'd probably predict 2 of these 4 to retire after the 2025 season. Given that he's already 36 and still playing fine, would people really be shocked or have a problem with it if Pendles was still playing on in 2027?
2. Looking at the rest of the veterans:
Titch - because of his recent injury struggles wouldn't rule out him retiring after the 2025 season, but I hope he can overcome this situation and have a good enough 2025 season such that he plays on in 2026 - and lets see where he's at come the end of 2026.
Checkers and Elliot - The way both play both get pretty battered up and crunched in games. 2026 season could be either's last but it would be great if both could at least make it until the end of 2027. And because of how both get real battered up hopefully neither get really unlucky next season touch wood as a forced early retirement would be a real shame.
WHE and Crisp - Both super professional players who take amazing care of themselves and don't really miss games, despite being 31 at the start of next season I wouldn't be shocked if either was still playing in 2029. Risk of impending retirement with these fellas is overrated af, to the extent where I don't even really include them in the group of 7 above who I see as potential retirements over the next 2 seasons. Not to mention both Crisp and WHE tend to be less in and under and more outside, so neither of them seem to get battered up quite as much as the likes of guys like Mihocek, Titch or Elliott. However, when either loses their pace we'll see how they adapt. Even if their body is fine, if they can't adapt to losing a bit of speed like how Sidey or Pendles has then we could see these guys not lasting beyond 2027.
3. Replacing the 7 oldies of concern:
I'm not saying hes as good but Perryman is slated to be a defensive-minded inside mid for us and therefore appears to be Pendlebury's long term replacement. Perryman is only 25 and is actually younger than Josh Daicos! So he could have closer to a decade left of footy left in him (8 years if you consider 33 to be the age players retire at). Sidenote but Houston is obviously the direct replacement for the only best 22 player we've lost in this trade period Noble. Similar to Perryman and Josh Daicos, Houston is the same age but actually slightly younger than Noble so this change doesn't affect our age profile.
Also, Harvey Harrison, I'm fully sold on this player, from what we've already seen I'm very confident that he'll make it long term, its a huge shame he did his ACL but as long as his recovery is managed correctly which it will be I'm confident we'll have a best 22 player there for the 2026 season and hopefully for many many years beyond (with no preseason I'm not sure how much of an impact he can have in the 2025 season so I'm just being conservative saying 2026 though I wouldn't be shocked if he did have some impact in 2025). He's already shown a lot at AFL level, more than enough for me to think he could be a fine replacement for...Elliott, long term, even if he's a different kind of small forward to Elliott. Touch wood Harvey Harrison has a good run with injuries from here.
We have to hope that some of the young players that we already have kick on, in particular first round picks Ed Allan and Harry DeMattia. That would definitely go a long way towards evolving the side for the long term.
And obviously, we can continue to top up the side with ready made players, whether thats through free agency, trade or even some handy DFA pickups or PSS players who could add to our list. Right now, I still feel as though we need to replace 5 out of those 7 players who might retire soon, but we should have 1-2 more years and offseasons to attempt to do so. Furthermore, despite not having a first round pick next year I've most recently seen McGuane projected at pick 10 for next year's draft. He sounds like a winger, and if he is top 10 level, hopefully even better, then boom theres your long term Sidebottom replacement.
Have a great day folks!
