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What on earth has happened to Collingwood’s gun recruit?
SEN • August 8th, 2025 12:49 pm
It’s time to have a tough conversation about Dan Houston if you’re Collingwood, according to David King.
The Pies gave up a first-round pick to pick up the two-time All-Australian last trade period and while the team has played well for the majority of the year, Houston has been well down on form.
Now with the side horribly out of form and in danger of losing their top four spot with Houston still misfiring, King pondered what has gone wrong for the 28-year-old who he still considers as a gun of the competition.
While Houston had 22 disposals in Thursday’s big loss to Hawthorn, several of his turnovers were incredibly costly and King can’t understand why his kicking ability - which is no doubt his biggest weapon - has seemingly been lost.
As well as his effectiveness, Houston has seen huge drops in his averages per game in disposals (23.1 to 16.8), marks (5.4 to 3.5), inside 50s (3.5 to 2.1) and rebound 50s (5.1 to 3.1).
He discussed Houston’s campaign and his poor form with Kane Cornes on SEN Breakfast, as the duo theorised how the Magpies could try and get the former Port star back to his best.
King: “Can I have a tough conversation with you about Dan Houston, what has happened to his kicking?
“I've got no problem with the rest of it. If he’s not getting enough footy, we can work on that. If he’s not running hard enough, covering the ground, his GPS would be awful, I reckon in the last 8 weeks, but you can work on that, you can challenge the player.
“Craig McRae said last night, ‘He's not calling for the ball’.
“There are lots of excuses and you can work on all those things and you can expect a better performance from a gun.
“He's a gun in our competition, but he’s not this season for a whole host of reasons.
“But his kicking… I’ve never seen him as lazy and as flamboyant with his kicking.
“The switch that hung in the air, the kick into the corridor that was a 9 iron that should have been a flat 3 iron…
“He coughed up the ball four times by foot, and three of them cost goals. That is not the Dan Houston we know.”
Cornes: “I said this on Monday, I've never been as wrong about anything than that (his impact at Collingwood).
“The previous week against Brisbane, it was 11 touches and 4 free kicks against. He's hardly gone over 15 touches a game this year.
“He did start to get the footy in his hands last night, I think he had 10 in the first quarter. Clearly, there was an instruction, ‘We need to get Houston going’, but he’s coughing up handballs.
“His kicking, which is an identifier, has been poor and so costly, because the ones he goes for are really tough, and then off the turnover, you're so vulnerable.
“He looks heavy to me. He doesn't look like he's got any level of speed.
“I was so adamant and confident that this guy was going to be a star and fit him perfectly for Collingwood.
“Maybe they need to run him through the midfield. He has played as a midfielder for Port Adelaide before.”
King: “How long ago was that?
Cornes: “There were always arguments, it would have been three or four years ago about ‘Does he play midfield or halfback?’. So I'd like to have a look at him through there.
“But physically, he just looks like he can't go. it's been a disaster.”
Houston and the Magpies will be desperate to respond when they face the ladder-leading Crows at the Adelaide Oval next Saturday night.
