Injuries are almost certain to rule captain Darcy Moore and veteran Scott Pendlebury out of Collingwood’s Thursday night clash with the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.
The veteran stars suffered intriguing ailments during Friday night’s victory over GWS at Marvel Stadium, both spending large periods of the match on the bench.
Moore’s issue was described as “hamstring awareness” by Collingwood coach Craig McRae, who then admitted Pendlebury had suffered an Achilles strain.
But this might have been news to Pendlebury. He had earlier dismissed concerns about his leg on Fox Footy, saying he sat out most of the second half as a precaution with a sore ankle.
He said he picked up the injury the week before against Adelaide.
The Magpies will also be sweating on the match review officer’s analysis of the Giants game, following an incident involving Ned Long.
The hard-nosed Collingwood midfielder appeared to flick opponent Clayton Oliver’s face with his hand during the 33-point victory, sending the Giants onballer sprawling to the ground. He is at risk of a week’s suspension.
The talk of the night was Moore. He was continually coming off the ground with a limp only to return full of running.
The key defender was back in the Collingwood side for his first game of the season after recovering from a calf strain, but he could barely kick the ball.
“It’s hamstring awareness,” McRae said. “For those following his rehab back to play, he had this about 10 to 12 days ago – the same thing – and we were just, ‘No risk, no risk, no risk’.
“But we were in the game, and you go, ‘Can he push through? Can he take some minutes?’ Because it’s important that, in terms of rotations, to see if he could take some minutes without risk.
“Now I say that, but I’m just backing in the high-performance team. That’s not my area, and so we did that.
“But he’s not right. He’s not 100 per cent. Has he done a hamstring? I’m not sure. I don’t think so… but we’ll obviously do all the investigations and find out.
“In six days we travel to Brisbane, so I’d say he’s unlikely next week.”
Pendlebury was due to equal Brent Harvey’s 432-game record on Anzac Day, and break it the following week during an MCG home game against Hawthorn. But that timeline has been pushed back by McRae.
“Pendles and I chatted this week, and we chatted pre-season, and he was unlikely to go this game [against the Lions on Thursday], and so we’ll probably stick to that plan,” McRae said.
“That was always our plan not to go to this game, so it probably falls in line with that.”
McRae said he was unsure of the extent of Pendlebury’s issue.
“The paint is still wet,” he said. “We will have to find all this out. You guys will be the first to know when we find out.”
The football world will be watching with interest.
Following their round eight clash with Hawthorn, Collingwood have an away game against Geelong at the MCG, and then head to the SCG to tackle the Swans as possible venues for Pendlebury’s milestone 433rd game (when he’d be one clear of Brent Harvey’s 432).
Despite injury clouds hanging over two of his key players, McRae was full of praise for debutant Oscar Steene.
The Magpies coach made the surprise move of starting the high-leaping Steene in the ruck. He quickly repaid the faith by setting up the side’s second goal with a superb centre-square tap to Nick Daicos.
“We’ve got a guy that can jump at the centre bounce and get a first hand on the ball and that changes the dynamic for the midfield,” McRae said.
“Nick can get on the roll, and Jordy [De Goey] can get on the roll, and they are really good players in that phase.”
Apart from his ruck work, Steene also took a strong grab in the goal square to bring up his first AFL goal. As the ball sailed through the big sticks he was swamped by 17 teammates.
Collingwood’s defence was miserly. Despite the Giants winning large volumes of possession and peppering their forward 50, the Magpies’ defence held resolute.
“They’re a dangerous team, the Giants, when they get that tsunami handball going, and we tried to be aware of it, but we forced them to contest a bit more in the second half, which we wanted to do,” McRae said.
Nick Daicos dominated the night and was clearly best on ground with 36 disposals and two goals.
His brother Josh was not far behind with 33 possessions, despite leaving the field for a short period in the opening term with a sore shoulder. Tim Membrey led the scoring with four goals.
For Giants coach Adam Kingsley, it was another week of frustration. They led the kicks and handball counts and topped the inside-50 tally 58 to Collingwood’s 50. But they could not score.
In the second half they were carved up in the centre square.
Kingsley said his side did not maximise their entries, nor their opportunities to post a winning score.
“It’s connection,” Kingsley said. “I thought Collingwood defended well in the moments that they needed to, but I think our connection is nowhere near where it needs to be at the moment.”
