Collingwood star Jordan De Goey will look to lift his training loads after he was one of four premiership players ruled out of Thursday night’s clash against Fremantle in Perth.
Fellow premiership teammates Scott Pendlebury and Brayden Maynard have also been rested, while Brodie Mihocek will miss because of an abdominal strain.
“They all won’t play, somewhat deliberately for most of them. ‘Checkers’ [Mihocek] has an abdominal strain which will keep him out, hopefully, for only one week, but we’ll see how that goes, and the other three will be managed,” Magpies coach Craig McRae said after training on Tuesday.
Get running: Jordan De Goey will miss the clash against Fremantle to work on his fitness.Credit: Getty Images
“We planned this a long time ago. We saw the draw when it came out, and we thought: ‘Let’s be strategic in this’, and those three won’t play.”
The Magpies are coming off a five-day break after their defeat to Geelong, and are mindful that the home-and-away season is akin to a marathon. That they sit second on the ladder with a 6-2 win-loss record has allowed them to fulfil their pre-season plan.
Pendlebury, Maynard and Mihocek did not take to the field on Tuesday, while De Goey was seen briefly.
Maynard, the rugged rebounding defender, has been battling a foot issue all season, and had scans on Monday. The Magpies contemplated resting him last week.
“He has had something ongoing the whole season and we have been managing him through that. We saw this opportunity a long way out,” McRae said.
“He could arguably play but we are going to be setting him back and back further if we keep pushing this.”
Veteran full-back Jeremy Howe, rested against the Cats, will return, while Ed Allan, Lachlan Sullivan and Oleg Markov – emergencies against the Cats – are firmly in contention for senior selection. Youngster Charlie West will also make the trip to Perth and, according to McRae, is “in the mix” to debut, but he has been nursing a “minor” foot issue.
Having a break: Scott Pendlebury.Credit: via Getty Images
De Goey is a concern for the Magpies, the robust forward-midfielder using a match-free weekend to work on his fitness, after a pre-season disrupted by a groin and abdominal issue that prompted him to seek treatment in Doha.
“We are one step forward, one step back with Jordy at the moment. We would like to be going a bit faster than what we are with him, but we have got to play the long game,” McRae said.
“We have patience. We are asking our Collingwood faithful to have a bit of patience because the plan is to get him going in the coming weeks, and this is part of that.”
Where Patrick Dangerfield was a match-winner on Saturday night, De Goey – boasting a similar explosiveness, when at his best, to Dangerfield – was a man fighting for form and fitness.
He stood at eight centre bounces against the Cats but had only one clearance, and finished the night with only nine disposals and 57 metres gained. He is averaging only 11 disposals through five games.
“He is managing loads, how much can he do around playing and then training. He has literally only started to get consistency with training and playing in the same week, which is hard to do at this level,” McRae said.
McRae has taken the unusual approach of having his players sit through the press conference given by Dockers coach Justin Longmuir last Friday after his team was crunched by St Kilda.
Longmuir said his team needed to be tougher in the contest, having been thumped by the Saints in contested ball and clearances. The Magpies also watched film of how the Dockers, who have slipped to ninth on the ladder, trained on Monday, to see what areas of the game they were working on.
“It was things he [Longmuir] said was lacking so, if it’s lacking, you would expect it to be there, or you would want it to be. We are not going to shy away from what’s coming,” McRae said.
Despite the mass changes, McRae said his team will head to Perth “full of confidence”.
“We are process-driven. Wait ’til you see our team. If you think we are going over with four less, well, we hope they think that. We are taking 23, not 18 or 19. We have really quality players coming in, we have great role players. We have great belief in our system,” McRae said.
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