Glen Jakovich is confident Collingwood will play finals again in 2021 but does have reservations surrounding the Magpies.
The concerns stem from the forward line which struggled to regularly kick winning scores throughout the 2020 season.
“What fascinates me with Collingwood is for a side that has got a lot of stars, and obviously some have left now, defensively they were third in the competition so they were very strong down back,” the West Coast champion said on Sportsday WA.
“But offensively, they were 13th.
“Jamie Elliott needs a full season, he needs to stay fit. Jordan De Goey, apparently those two are tearing up the track and looking a million dollars.
“Josh Daicos comes into that mix, he’s going to be a star player. Mason Cox and Brody Mihocek - how much can you get out of that combination?
“They’re bits players, they’re not your Tom Lynch or Josh Kennedy. You admire the way they go about it but they’re not a duo that’s going to win you a premiership.
“That really concerns me.”
Jakovich also touched on the club’s off-season “turmoil” which saw Adam Treloar and Jaidyn Stephenson depart the club in sensational circumstances.
“What’s their mental state after what’s happened with the fallout with the players being dumped out of the football club?” he added.
“It was turmoil.
“I think they’re starting to miss an opportunity. They built this list and getting rid of Treloar and Stephenson, they’re big players. They’ve had to dump some of their salary somewhere else.
“It’s a very fascinating scenario where the Collingwood Football Club find themselves.
“They know internally what they’re doing.
“I’ll back them to play finals football again but I’ve got them finishing in the bottom part of the eight because their scoring concerns me.
“They win the ball off half-back, they play slowly to get it out wide to the wings and then they go fast. But their forward line, to me, is not productive.
“I think you can play their forward quite well (as an opposition defence) and you can defend very well against them.”
He added: “Jordan De Goey, you’ll find he’s going to be in the midfield the majority of the time when the chips are down and they need some energy,”
“He can win his own ball and he can break packs open, but who is he going to kick it to? He can’t kick it to himself.”
The Pies take on Hawthorn and Sydney in the AAMI Community Series before meeting Western Bulldogs in Round 1 on March 19.