Collingwood coach Craig McRae noticed sufficient in Jordan De Goey‘s return from suspension last week to declare his star is ready to “dominate the game” as the Magpies push towards a premiership tilt.
The ladder leaders will get back experienced trio Brayden Maynard, Steele Sidebottom and Dan McStay for Saturday’s conflict with Fremantle however have misplaced ruckman Darcy Cameron to a coaching harm.
Cameron was pressured from the coaching monitor after the warm-up on Thursday morning and was pushed again to the membership on a golf buggy, with McRae confirming a again harm had dominated him out of the MCG conflict.
“Darcy gained‘t play – unfortunately after the game he had a bit of a stiff back. He trained earlier in the week and we hoped that he would progress,” McRae said.
“We didn’t get a lot development on Tuesday after which we thought we’d go once more right now, however he’s simply not going to be proper.”
McRae mentioned De Goey, who returned final week after a three-game suspension, was on the verge of rediscovering the dominant type he possessed earlier than the ban, which he spent doing a strong coaching block to prime him for the membership’s run to the finals.
Ahead of De Goey’s one hundred and fiftieth sport, McRae mentioned the 27-year-old had turned himself round this season and the Magpies have been reaping the huge advantages of his mature transformation.
“He‘s had three weeks off prior to last week, which put a little bit of a comma on a great sentence which has been his season … we’re really happy with his progression on and off the field,” he mentioned on Friday.
“We saw glimpses last week in the second half of a guy that can just really dominate the game, particularly around clearance.”
McRae mentioned McStay’s return was not an adjustment to cater for Cameron’s loss however a comeback stalled in latest weeks by niggling harm points.
McStay managed solely 5 disposals and one mark enjoying restricted minutes in his VFL return final Friday after being sidelined since spherical 5 with a severe finger harm.
“Dan got minutes last week … the whole plan for him was to get some game time, and that‘s continuing this week, we just want to get him some continuity,” McRae mentioned.
“We just haven’t had our key pillars in place all year … (Brody Mihocek) is still not up, so we haven’t got that mix yet organised to find out what our best is, so we’ve got another opportunity to find out.”
McStay’s return helps offset the absence of Mihocek, who will miss a second match with hamstring tightness.
But McRae mentioned he was a powerful likelihood to return for the top-of-the-table conflict with Port Adelaide subsequent week.
“He was similar to Darcy Cameron in terms of if he could get through the week and progress and show some signs … he just wasn‘t quite good enough to progress to the next level,” McRae mentioned.
“He didn‘t go backwards, he just didn’t press quick enough.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
