Collingwood coach Craig McRae says injured star Taylor Adams is “a chance” to return ought to the Magpies make the AFL grand last after confirming a straight swap for returning star Nick Daicos because the possible solely change for Friday’s preliminary last.
Daicos educated strongly once more on Wednesday as McRae steered he would think about using his star in a wide range of roles, together with at half-forward, however warned that the Magpies have been “conscious” of how a lot soccer he had missed since struggling a hairline fracture to his knee in spherical 21.
McRae dismissed harm issues for captain Darcy Moore, who additionally educated totally at Olympic Park, as Adams was put by means of some gentle drills in his bid to return from a hamstring pressure ought to the Pies make the grand last.
The coach referred to as Adams “a chance” to return if Collingwood beats GWS on the MCG.
“(Daicos for Adams) looks like the most likely (change), at this stage,” McRae mentioned.
“It’s the unknown … we’re hoping (Adams could play next week). He’s progressing really well. It was a minor hamstring strain, what that means is he’s a chance.
“You would see the work he’s doing … he’s a race against the clock, but we’ve got to get there first.”
McRae mentioned Daicos may very well be thrown into plenty of positions on his return relying on the match scenario.
“We’re going to use him where we need him, to be honest. He might start forward, he might start mid, just whatever the game needs,” he mentioned.
“It’s a great weapon to have, bringing back one of your best players. He looks like he’s hungry, ready to go, he’s trained on and on. (He was) a bit scratchy in the first couple of weeks back … he’s missed a lot of footy, so we’ve got to be conscious of that.”
McRae mentioned Moore’s wrist harm had “settled down reasonably well”, as the important thing defender educated with out the forged on his hand he had worn final week.
He mentioned it was unlikely any changes can be made to the Magpies’ defensive personnel regardless of the troublesome menace posed by Giants half-forwards Toby Bedford and Brent Daniels.
Last week’s omission John Noble is an choice for McRae if he opts to go along with a smaller defence, however the coach mentioned he was proud of the steadiness of the backline.
“Daniels is a really good player, I think he’s underrated, we have to watch out for him. They’re good players … if you went through every player on the field you’d go, ‘Ooh, this is a concern’, but we have a team defence so we like to back our system in,” he mentioned.
“I had a good chat to Johnny (Noble) earlier in the week – he’s disappointed, as you would be, but as a quality human that he is, he just gets back to work and he’s trained so well this week.”
Livewrire Jack Ginnivan got here on because the sub within the qualifying last win over Melbourne, however McRae mentioned he needed to think about whether or not “insurance” was wanted in different positions.
“I’ve said before, we look sometimes for insurance, and then look sometimes for spark. Sometimes you can get a bit of both – I think Mason (Cox) against Brisbane a few weeks ago looked like he gave us a bit of insurance and a bit of spark,” he mentioned.
“Jack Ginnivan’s doing a great job in that role, so we’ll see how that plays out.”
Originally printed as Nick Daicos will substitute injured Taylor Adams for Collingwood’s prelim last
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
