Pies look for edge to turn finals into flags

COLLINGWOOD does not need to “reinvent the wheel” in 2020, according to emerging defender Isaac Quaynor, who says the Pies’ consecutive heartbreaks could be a turning point.

The Magpies have harnessed how close they have come to glory over the past two seasons — making the grand final and a preliminary final respectively — in the opening weeks of this pre-season in an effort to “fine tune” what it needs to achieve a flag.

And Quaynor said the signs that the team has what is required are all there.

“One of the themes in one of our initial meetings was the fact that we’re so close,” he said. “We’re heading in the right direction, we’re doing everything right. We’ve got the winning formula. We just need to fine tune a few different things to make sure that we can achieve that final goal, which is winning a granny.

“That was the main goal and the main message that I got … that we’re right on track and we don’t have to reinvent the wheel to go to the next step.”

Quaynor, 19, re-signed this week for another two years in a deal he admitted had taken longer to be finalised than he had expected, but he is pleased to be locked in at the Holden Centre for the near future.

A foot stress injury and then hip surgery — an arthroscope, just before a “pretty tame” trip to Bali with teammates — at the end of the season meant his pre-season has been hampered, but the defender is now back running and is hoping to be in full training after Christmas.