Collingwood champion Steele Sidebottom has backed the team’s small forwards to kick enough goals to win games against good opposition after more talls were cut down by injury during their hard-earned win over St Kilda.
Jack Ginnivan kicked five goals and won the Anzac Day Medal in last year’s clash against Essendon, with Brody Mihocek kicking four.
Collingwood small forwards Bobby Hill, Jack Ginnivan and Jamie Elliott will be crucial if their team is going to produce a winning score against Essendon on Anzac Day.Credit: Getty
However, Ginnivan will have more support on the ground on Tuesday than he did in the corresponding clash last year, when Jamie Elliott was injured and Bobby Hill was still playing at the Giants.
Sidebottom said the sharpshooting Ginnivan, speedy Hill and dynamic Elliott just needed the ball on the ground to create massive problems for the opposition, and second-placed Essendon would be in their sights on Anzac Day. It will be time since 2000 that both teams enter the traditional Anzac Day clash inside the top four.
Sidebottom said Collingwood’s midfielders would have to use the ball well entering their forward 50 metres to reduce pressure on battering ram Brody Mihocek, who will likely be the Magpies’ only key forward.
“[Hill, Ginnivan and Elliott] are probably the guys we are going to have to rely on to kick a score for us now, so if we create contests, bring it to ground, then hopefully guys like that can kick goals for us,” Sidebottom said.
He said losing Dan McStay during the first quarter against the Saints to a finger-tendon injury after Jordan De Goey was a late withdrawal because of gastro was not ideal, but the team would gain confidence from how they overcame those setbacks.
“That’s probably a better win than we actually realise right now,” Sidebottom said in the rooms post-match.
“Running out of talls at the moment means we will take a lot out of that [win] because we are probably going to have to play small going forward.”
Sidebottom said Billy Frampton was impressive in the ruck and was exactly the character Collingwood needed to take on the Bombers’ ruck duo Sam Draper and Andrew Phillips.
“Whatever role he is given, he just has a crack. He has mongrel in him,” Sidebottom said.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae was keen to emphasise that every team had injuries, but with tall defender Nathan Murphy ruled out of Anzac Day because of a concussion suffered late in the win over the Saints, he admitted they would need to apply some creative tactics.
He indicated Nathan Kreuger might play, but Mason Cox would remain on the sidelines after suffering a haemotoma from a knock in round two.
McRae said he had faith in Ginnivan to perform well after he overcame a scratchy start to kick two vital goals last week, including one at the start of the last quarter, in his first game of the season.
“When we needed him, he did a couple of things that were really important to the game. He is a clever player. He is important to us the way he can do little things that others can’t do. I think he will be better for [the run],” McRae said.
