You mean to say Collins was behind Hamling, a bloke who spent a couple of years struggling to overcome a broken leg, a 32 year old playing during a rebuild, a kid drafted that year who the coach had declared would move into the midfield eventually and another kid drafted that year who was being moulded into a forward? Yeah, real tough competition for Collins there, no wonder he wasn't retained.
I always liked the look of Collins and championed him as needing more AFL games in his time at Freo. His reading of the play and overhead marking was always fantastic and I liked his decision making under pressure, something necessary under RL coached sides considering how tough it is back there. The knocks on his kicking were overrated, KPD's aren't exactly known for being good kicks and we'd just carried possibly the worst kick of all time for the previous 6 years at FB. His handpassing was good and APearce is also a far worse kick.
He always seemed like a good bloke to me and I hope he gets another chance with a coach he can work with.
