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| Scott Burns |
In Dane Swan, Scott Pendlebury, Luke Ball and Dayne Beams, he has a total of seven club best-and-fairests, 11 All-Australian selections, a Brownlow Medal and a total of 442 Brownlow votes in the past four years.
But it’s not just the cream of the crop he’s looking forward to working with.
The second tier of Collingwood midfielders, ranging from established ball winners Steele Sidebottom and Jarryd Blair down to the untried Tim Broomhead and Nathan Freeman, have already left a lasting impression on the ex-skipper.
“Sidebottom, from day one, looked like he was at home at this level and Blairy’s played bits and pieces in the midfield and a little bit forward,” Burns told collingwoodfc.com.au.
“I’d probably put Blairy in the Joshy Thomas bracket. He’s played bits and pieces over the last few years in the midfield and you look at those two, and then you look at guys like Alex Fasolo and Jamie Elliott who are more forwards, they may get time in the midfield.
“Then there’s Taylor Adams, Nathan Freeman, Benny Kennedy, Tim Broomhead – there’s quite a few players there that I’ve noticed over the last 4-6 weeks since I’ve been here that have certainly got ability when it comes to in-close work around the congestion. They certainly know how to find the football in some of our drills. They’re natural footballers and I’m looking forward to working with them.”
For the more experienced players such as Swan, Pendlebury and Ball, who have each well and truly earned their stripes, Burns knows that a different approach is needed.
He says he will use their renowned high standards as a way of keeping them fresh and on their toes.
“With the older players who have been around a long time, you’ve just got to continually challenge them,” he explained.
“There’s got to be stages, especially when you get to 30-plus, when it can to get harder physically.
“I think as a coach you look at those first signs where they’re just starting to tire and get a little bit fatigued and they need a mental freshen up. You’ve need to keep pushing it as much as possible in terms of when they do just start to sag a little bit that you remind them of the leaders that they are and that they need to keep their standards at training for those younger players like I mentioned earlier that are coming through.
“Usually when you have those older players and elite players, they’re that driven anyway. They’re the ones usually coming to you asking for advice or more so probably asking about other players and other teams more so than their own game.”
Burns knows all about dealing with high quality midfields.
During his five years at West Coast, he guided the likes of Nic Naitanui, Daniel Kerr, Scott Selwood and Luke Shuey and oversaw their rise from the depths of the ladder in 2009-2010 to a Preliminary Final in 2011.
Collingwood’s midfield had no trouble finding the footy in 2013 (the club was ranked fifth for disposals), so where can it improve under Burns next year?
“I guess the biggest area I think the midfield can improve is probably dotting the Is and crossing the Ts,” he said.
“I think what’s been put in place has been pretty good. It’s a matter of myself probably building those personal relationships up as much as I can early, getting them in individually to take stock of their game, what they can improve on to go to the next level, but certainly not ignoring their strengths.
“There are a lot of very, very good midfielders here that have got an A-grade game but one or two areas where they really excel, so that’s got to be at the top of their game and they don’t want to drop off in that part of it.”
One of those A-graders Burns refers to is Swan.
When Burns retired at the end of 2008, Swan, then aged 24 and with 100 games under his belt, had just won his first Copeland Trophy and was yet to have his arms covered in tattoos.
Burns has since watched Swan’s evolution from low profile on-baller to competition superstar from afar and says Swan’s improvement hasn’t come as any surprise.
“When I left, Dane had won that first best-and-fairest so I obviously knew that he was a talented player. But his consistent output over the last five or six years has been sensational.
“To continually maintain the standard of getting the touches that he does and kicking the goals he does...I’m not sure how many Brownlow votes he would have got over the last five or six years but to win three best-and-fairests in a row, there’s not too many players who have done that in the history of our club.
“He was always a natural footballer, Swanny, but he’s certainly built up his size and strength and ability to repeat speed in games.
“He’s one of those dynamic players who are just so important. You’ve got Pendlebury, who is more of, I guess, ‘the general’ - controlling things in the congestion - but the ability of Swanny to burst out of there and break the game open means we’re really lucky.
“We’ve got two elite players but two completely different midfielders and they really complement each other well.”
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