Collingwood national recruiting manager Derek Hine believes the club has strengthened its on-field position both for 2011 and for the future with the acquisitions of Andrew Krakouer and John Ceglar.

Hine told collingwoodfc.com.au on Thursday that the two new Magpies have strengthened two different areas of the club.

“They are two players in different stages of their careers but they both complement specific areas within the club,” Hine said.

“What we are able to do through the establishment rules for the Gold Coast Football Club was to be able to potentially trade for preselected players that the Gold Coast were able to access.

“We looked quite comprehensively at players who we felt would not only meet our short needs but also our long term development objectives.”

Hine described both players on collingwoodfc.com.au

On Andrew Krakouer
We spoke to Andrew three months ago on the back of some of his outstanding form in the WAFL for the Swans Districts which eventually won him the Sandover medal.

We have been very encouraged with his form this year.  He has played predominantly played through the midfield / forward and has become an elite stoppage player  because of his outstanding form he has attracted a lot of attention with regards to tagging and has been able to cope very well.

He really is a completely different player and has developed an outstanding inside game.  We see him as taking our midfield and forward structures to another level.

There is no doubt that he has been best performed player outside the AFL and we are delighted that we were able to facilitate the trade.

On John Ceglar
John was very important to the deal.  We see him as a developing ruckman who fits our development objectives well. 

Cameron Wood fits into the 22-25 age bracket, Seamus McNamara fits into the 26-29 bracket and Darren will play as a 30-year old next year. We wanted to bring in another developing ruckman who sits in the 18-22 bracket.  With the addition of John we have a nice succession plan in place.