Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon has made his tip for this year’s premiership.
Lyon believes Collingwood’s depth, as well as the addition of Dayne Beams, will make them hard to stop in 2019.
“I’m starting to think, and I’ll say it today, Collingwood is my tip for the premiership,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“I love what they’ve done and I love what they continue to do, and I can’t see how they’re not going to be stronger.
“They’ve just got depth everywhere.
“Brodie Grundy sits right at the pointy end, and then that midfield that is well recognized has just got deeper because they’ve added Dayne Beams to it.
“When you’ve got Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom, Adam Treloar, Taylor Adams and Brayden Sier, Jordan de Goey floating through and Tom Phillips on a wing – then you throw Beams into the mix, Beams is a top 10 player in the competition.
“I don’t think you can factor him in, but imagine if Daniel Wells gets going.”
Lyon admits Collingwood’s backline was their weak point last year, but feels they’ve strengthened it.
“The area they’ve been a bit vulnerable is in the back half and having said all of that, their back half included Jeremy Howe, Tom Langdon, Jack Crisp, James Aish developed and now you’ve got Jordan Roughead and Lynden Dunn coming back potentially,” he said.
“I think it’s just so terribly exciting for this Collingwood side.”
Lyon also added an explanation as to why he isn’t tipping the reigning premiers.
“That’s why I’m not tipping the West Coast Eagles, because I think winning back-to-back premierships, history tells you it’s just so damn hard to do,” he said.