It's also a group that is becoming increasingly the stuff of memories only, the ongoing links to that success for the Pies set to diminish even further in a few weeks when Collingwood end a third successive season without a finals appearance.

Travis Cloke's whereabouts in 2017 are the talk of the football world, reports from usually reliable sources indicating that not only has the premiership centre half-forward effectively already been given the pink slip, but that he has a new home lined up – Richmond and the Western Bulldogs reportedly the destinations most likely.

Those same sources are as confident that another 2010 flag star in Dane Swan has played his last game of AFL football. And as the trade and list talk ramps up around those clubs not playing a part in September, another four premiership players in Nathan Brown, Jarryd Blair, Tyson Goldsack and Brent Macaffer are said to be on shaky ground.

Were those half-dozen players not part of the Pies' plans in 2017, just four of that 2010 premiership side would be left at the Holden Centre. And while larger list turnovers are par for the course in the modern game, it would nonetheless remain a remarkable disintegration of what looked at the time a team set to turn out for the next generation.

Collingwood in 2010 were the youngest premiership team in the past 38 years of league football, Hawthorn's 1978 line-up the only one even greener than the Magpie 22's average age of 24 years and 57 days. And the Hawks of then offer an interesting comparison.

Like the Magpies of 2010, their flag success at a young age didn't translate into more silverware, the Hawks not even reaching finals the next three seasons. But by the time they climbed again to win the 1983 premiership, eight were still a part of the flag mix, and a dozen still on the club's senior list.

While some of Collingwood's departures have been the result of natural attrition – the retirements of skipper Nick Maxwell, Luke Ball, Leigh Brown, Ben Johnson and Alan Didak – there's half-a-dozen still plying their trade at different homes.

There's little doubt Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has attempted to pursue a cultural revolution of sorts since he took over from Mick Malthouse. How successful that has been is debatable.

You can argue the circumstances around the departures of Heath Shaw, Dayne Beams, Dale Thomas, Sharrod Wellingham, Heritier Lumumba and Chris Dawes, and the degrees to which Collingwood attempted to keep them part of the fabric.

You can argue also the extent to which the Pies have been burnt by the losses. Perhaps Shaw might not have again reached the levels he has at Greater Western Sydney without a change of scenery.

Perhaps Beams' departure for Brisbane was out of the Pies' hands. Wellingham has had his moments at West Coast, Thomas has never been the same since injuring his ankle, and Melbourne may already have moved past Lumumba and Dawes.

You can debate whether Leon Davis and Darren Jolly could have squeezed out an extra season or two had Collingwood not been so resolutely determined to move so quickly from one era to the next.

What can't be disputed, though, is the failure of enough of either the Pies remaining from 2010 or those who have come on board since to sufficiently fill the gaps those losses had, in terms both of pure football output and genuine leadership qualities.

Continued injuries to key players have certainly been a big factor. But Collingwood's failure over the past couple of seasons to bed down a preferred best 22 is also symptomatic of their wider list, a composite of the remnants of 2010, players subsequently acquired via drafting and nine picked up from other AFL clubs.

It's a combination that under Buckley has never quite gelled. It may still, but the longer time elapses – and, yes, with the benefit of hindsight – the picture is of change pushed too swiftly, without enough left behind to sustain at least a high level of competitiveness throughout the transition.

Whether Cloke and another clutch of 2010 Collingwood premiership players are part of that ongoing transition remains to be seen. But the faces from that flag photo continue to be crossed out.

Six years can be a lifetime in football. But you've only to glance at some of the headlines from October 2010 – and for the youngest flag side in nearly 40 years, predictions of an "era of dominance" – to realise just how far from the script Collingwood's story diverted.