Why Champion Data expert is excited about what Collingwood is beginning to produce in 2024

Champion Data expert analyst Daniel Hoyne thinks that Collingwood is beginning to recapture the form that won them the 2023 premiership.

The Magpies started the season 0-3 with losses to GWS, Sydney and St Kilda but haven’t lost in their last four games with three wins and a draw in that time.

While Hoyne concedes that it took Collingwood a while to get moving in 2024, he says that they’ve turned around some key indicators in their game with Champion Data loving the profile that they’re creating with and without the footy over the last six weeks.

“Clearly, it's taken them a little while to get going. They’re three wins, three losses and a draw,” Hoyne said on SEN Sportsday.

“But what they're doing from a profile perspective at the moment is starting to absolutely resemble what we saw from Collingwood last year.

“Over the last six weeks, they’re the sixth best team in the competition with the footy and importantly the third best team in the competition without the footy.

“What they're doing in contest in general play outside of clearance, they’re second best in the competition.

“They've got that speed, energy, excitement and enthusiasm back into that aspect of the game and the clearance side of things is about breakeven.”

Collingwood were plagued early in the season with some poor results on turnover, an area of their game that was a standout in 2022 and 2023.

Hoyne says that their turnover game is back over the last four games as they begin to look more like themselves as the season goes on.

“We continue to value the turnover side of the equation … that's back to what it was last year,” Hoyne said.

“They were the second-best turnover team in the competition (in 2023). But three weeks in it looked like a disaster, we hadn’t really seen Collingwood opened up on turnover like that before.

“After three games they were -72 points of turnover, the next four games they are +66 which ranks them amongst the best teams in the competition.”

Another move that’s shored up the side is the inclusion of Billy Frampton, who has performed brilliantly in key defence across the last five games.

Hoyne says that Frampton is rating incredibly well in Champion Data’s defensive metrics as he next faces a huge matchup of Charlie Curnow or Harry McKay.

“I just wanted to just give Billy Frampton a bit of a shout-out as well,” Hoyne said.

“Once we release our defensive ratings over the coming weeks, what he's doing as a key defender this year is up there with the best key defenders in the game.

“Now he's needed given Nathan Murphy's no longer there. I can't wait to see what he does either against a Harry Mackay or a Charlie Curnow this week.

“In terms of what he's doing defensively, it has been absolutely superb.”

But perhaps the most exciting thing for Hoyne is that Collingwood has seemingly fixed their profile without much standout individual performance.

He thinks that they could improve substantially from here if those individuals begin to play to their best in the coming weeks.

“The excitement for me if I'm a Collingwood supporter is around the individual aspect,” Hoyne said.

“With that team profile that they've got over the last six weeks, they've only got two players to rate inside the top 85 players in the competition over that period.

“That's Nick Daicos and Pat Lipinski who's actually going quite well. They don't have anyone else that's actually rating inside the top 85.

“With the team performance starting to improve significantly, they've still got so much scope for improvement from an individual sense.

“There's significant improvement in terms of what they can do from an individual performance that could potentially even enhance what they're doing from a team aspect.

“I can't wait for Friday night to see what's going to happen there from their (Carlton's) defensive perspective and this Collingwood profile to see whether or not, it can actually go to another level.”

Collingwood plays Carlton in a huge Friday night clash at the MCG. The bounce for the big game is set for 7:40 pm (AEST).