According to Tim Watson on SEN, there is still a question about the Pies in 2020 that is a major concern.
Despite the Pies defeating the Cats by 22-points on Thursday night, Watson and Gary Lyon questioned the Pies' lack of a clear key forward option.
Mason Cox was a late out in place of bringing in John Noble, which led to Jordan De Goey being the key option going forward.
De Goey thrived and got back to some of his best football, kicking 5.1 on the night and providing the x-factor that he has become to be known.
Watson questioned the lack of a key options Collingwood have moving forward and wonders if the Pies' current structure will be enough to win the premiership in 2020.
โWe talk about in great detail Collingwoodโs defensive efforts and how good they were last night and how theyโve kept opposition sides to miserable scores,โ he said on SEN Breakfast.
โWill it be that theyโve got to find themselves a better tall target than what they currently have in their forward line for them to win the flag this year?
โIs that in your thinking for not?โ
Lyon then replied that Cox is the option the Pies have at the moment, but may not be the option that wins them a premiership.
โCox is the one they have pencilled in at the moment.
โIt just gives them a couple of different options and takes away some of the predictability if you donโt have him in the there.
โHe wonโt win them the flag, Mason Cox, but he adds to a structure that I think is going to give them their best chance.
โJordan De Goey is the man. He didnโt spend one minute in the centre bounce last night and he kicked five goals out of eight, was clearly the best player on the ground and had his best match for the year.
โBut theyโve got Mason Cox in their best 22 for that reason, I think you do need another tall forward option.โ
Watson still questions the status of Cox as the number one forward and if him being the major forward option is enough for the Pies to excel even more.
โThat would be my only query against Collingwood right now is that I donโt think Mason Cox has shown enough for me to be confident in his ability to be able to get the job done in a finals series." Watson said.
โI know that he had that breakout final a couple of years ago but apart from that I donโt know that heโs actually been able to produce enough.
โWhat he needs to be able to do if he does fulfil that role is not necessarily mark the ball but just bring it to ground and create that contest.
โBecause (Brody) Mihocek is an excellent player but heโs not your key forward either. Heโs more of a third type forward, he does that role as well as any player in the game at the moment.
โI reckon that is probably the one question mark against them right now.โ
Nathan Buckley explained the reason for Cox's late omission in his post-match press conference.
โIt was a coin toss decision,โ he said.
โIt was pretty slippery out there. We just thought that probably the question mark was a bit of straightening us up and being able to go long down the line with Mason in front of the ball versus just having a little bit of ground ball hunt.
โWe rate Geelong in that area so putting โNobesโ behind the ball was in some part around the capacity of their small forwards, so we decided to go that way.โ
