The “mightily ugly” scenario in place at Collingwood

Kane Cornes is expecting things to get “mightily ugly” for Collingwood as 2026 rolls on.

The Magpies were played off the MCG in the second half by Geelong on Saturday night to lose by 54 points.

Craig McRae’s side was in the contest at half-time, trailing by just 10 points, before kicking 4.6 and conceding 11.8 after the main break.

Cornes is concerned by the fact that Collingwood’s best players on the night were again the older boys.

“This Collingwood situation, at some point it's going to get really difficult for them,” Cornes said on SEN’s Fireball.

“You look through their best players on the weekend and they're not young. Their highest rated players - Jordan De Grey, Jeremy Howe, Scott Pendlebury, Josh Daicos, Brayden Maynard, Dan Houston, Jack Crisp, Pat Lipinski.

“Not a whole lot of youth in that crew coming through. It's going to get mightily ugly for this group.”

David King is not quite as worried but does believe decisions must be made around the current playing list.

“I don't think there's any hurry to make these decisions. You've got to just keep your finger on the pulse,” he said of the Pies.

“We’re coming up to Round 10, there's no hurry.

“You can fall off the cliff in 10 weeks in footy or you can gather and go again. So I don't think there's any hurry, you just have open and honest conversations with these guys.

“If it were as it is today, this is probably where we're leaning. So you give the players a runway to whether you're likely to go with them or not, but you’ve got to change your mind and be flexible.

“I’m not in any desperate hurry to delist any of these guys, but I'm in no hurry to give them a positive affirmation either.

Cornes added: “I’m fine with that, but there's clearly some big decisions that need to be made around this list as we've discussed.”

The Pies hold a 4-1-4 record after Round 9 which has them sitting 10th on the ladder. They next take on Sydney at the SCG on Friday night.