Pies delist five
Collingwood has made five changes to its senior list ahead of Wednesday’s first lodgement deadline.
Ruckmen Cameron Wood and Jonathon Ceglar, small forwards Kirk Ugle and Luke Rounds and defender Simon Buckley have all been delisted.
The departures mean that in all the club has made 14 changes to its squad, with rookies Paul Cribbin, Daniel Farmer, Shae McNamara, Trent Stubbs and Lachlan Smith departing in early September and Sharrod Wellingham, Chris Dawes and Tom Young traded to West Coast, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, respectively.
Wood and Buckley featured semi-regularly in the senior 22 in 2012, while Ugle played three games and Rounds one. Ceglar did not play an AFL match.
View a summary of Collingwood's off-season activity here.
Wood, 25, played six games this year for a total of 48 with Collingwood across five seasons at the Westpac Centre. He started his career with Brisbane, where he played 16 matches before moving to Victoria at the end of the 2007 season.
Buckley played 13 matches in 2012, for a total of 26 in his three seasons with the club. Like Wood, the 25 year-old also started his AFL career elsewhere. He played 21 games in three seasons with Melbourne from 2007-2009.
Ugle, 20, made his debut for the Magpies on ANZAC Day this year after making his way to Collingwood in the 2010 National Draft. He played two more matches in the ensuing five weeks but did not feature in the senior side again.
Rounds was selected in the third round of the 2008 National Draft but did not make his debut until 2011. He played five matches that season but only one this year, against Hawthorn in round one.
Ceglar, 21, was recruited out of Wodonga prior to the 2010 National Draft when he was pre-listed and then traded to Collingwood by Gold Coast (along with Andrew Krakouer) but was unable to force his way into the senior side.
Collingwood director of football, Geoff Walsh, said the delistings were a reality of professional football life.
“All of the boys did what they could to give themselves a chance and they were good people to have around the club,” Walsh said.
“People don’t always see what sacrifices are made to try to forge an AFL career. We thank all of them for that effort and wish them well.”
The changes mean that, with Quinten Lynch, Clinton Young and Jordan Russell recruited in the recently concluded free agency/trade period, Collingwood will take four live picks - 18, 19, 21 and 39 - into next month’s national draft on the Gold Coast.