As the 2026 AFL season gets underway, Collingwood Magpies star and reigning best-and-fairest winner Darcy Cameron has pushed back hard against growing fan and analyst speculation that the club’s veteran-heavy playing list is the root cause of its underwhelming opening stretch.
Through the first five rounds of the new campaign, the Pies have only secured two wins, dropping three consecutive matches to premiership contenders Adelaide, the Brisbane Lions, and Fremantle. This underperformance has reignited long-simmering questions about Collingwood’s list composition, with critics arguing the club overrelies on young star Nick Daicos and 400-game veteran Scott Pendlebury, warning that an ‘age cliff’ is imminent for the side that reached two preliminary finals and one grand final over the past four seasons.
Cameron, however, has labelled these concerns nonsensical. He pointed to Collingwood’s sustained on-field success over the previous four years as evidence that the current group of players remains competitive, even with the advancing age of several key leaders. “I know those guys are getting a little bit older but they’re still performing at a really high level,” Cameron told reporters, doubling down that the narrative of an impending age-related collapse is unfounded.
Instead of focusing on age, Cameron shifted the conversation to the Pies’ well-documented attacking struggles, particularly in the inside 50, which he identified as the far more pressing issue for the club to address. The Magpies controlled the inside 50 count in their recent loss to Fremantle, but failed to convert that territory into meaningful scoreboard damage. Outside of a win over GWS where coach Craig McRae adjusted the side’s attacking structure, Collingwood has only posted low totals of 78, 79, 65 and 39 points in its other four 2026 outings, leaving the forward line starved of quality scoring opportunities.
Cameron said the root of the problem lies with the midfield’s ball movement, not the forward group’s ability to convert. The ruckman acknowledged that midfielders, including himself, too often fell into predictable attacking patterns against Fremantle, which flooded extra defenders behind the ball to clog the Collingwood forward 50. “We probably missed a few opportunities in the first half to lower our eyes and not be so predictable,” Cameron explained. “Freo flood a lot of numbers back and we probably played into their hands at times. We just need to create more opportunities to link up with our forwards. We will go back and look at the vision and fix this moving forward.”