Nathan Buckley faces a happy headache due to Collingwood’s bulging midfield talent

Collingwood’s shrinking injury list is set to provide Nathan Buckley with serious selection headaches this year as up to 15 senior Pies clamour for midfield minutes.

Collingwood’s shrinking injury list is set to provide Nathan Buckley with serious selection headaches this year as up to 15 senior Pies clamour for midfield minutes.

Pies onball star Adam Treloar is finally ready for match simulation games after a graduated pre-season coming off his twin hamstring issues last year.

He could soon be joined by Daniel Wells, who is making encouraging progress from last June’s season-ending lisfranc injury and clocking solid miles on the track.

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The Pies are yet to chart a path back to senior football for Wells, in the last year of a lucrative contract, but Round 1 isn’t out of the question.

Collingwood boasts the No.1 ranked midfield in the competition, with Buckley’s main challenge is finding a way to squeeze the talent into Collingwood’s 22.

High-profile acquisition Dayne Beams has been managed through the summer given his age and experience, the 28-year-old conducting maintenance work on a tight back but otherwise in good shape.

Adam Treloar at Collingwood training. Picture: Michael Klein

Dayne Beams returns to Collingwood in 2019.

Inside midfielder Brayden Sier proved a game-changer in Collingwood’s midfield after making his debut in Round 15 and will not be forced out any time soon.

Steele Sidebottom won the club’s Copeland Trophy from one wing and Tom Phillips finished fifth in the best-and-fairest on the other wing.

All of those midfield gains mean Buckley’s challenge is how to reward the summer toil of players like Josh Daicos, who came back from the off-season in excellent shape and has been excellent in match simulation.

It also allows him the luxury of keeping Jordan De Goey and Jaidyn Stephenson in the forward 50m despite both of them plying their trade as juniors in the midfield.

Players like Josh Thomas, Levi Greenwood and Travis Varcoe will have to continue their strong form to retain their positions.

The Pies midfield options include Beams, Sidebottom, Scott Pendlebury, de Goey, Varcoe, Thomas, Sier, Phillips, Chris Mayne, Greenwood, Daicos, Taylor Adams, Josh Thomas, Will Hoskin-Elliott and James Aish.

Sier played 89.5 per cent of his game time in the midfield last year, followed by Pendlebury (89 per cent), Phillips (87 per cent), Beams (86.8 per cent), Adams (79.9 per cent) and Treloar (76.2 per cent).

The Pies this year have six players who on average attended more than 50 per cent of centre bounces per game - Sier (88.4 per cent), Pendlebury (87.5 per cent), Beams (86.4 per cent), Adams (78.7 per cent), Treloar (58.4 per cent) and Sidebottom (58.4 per cent).

Young midfielder Brayden Sier. Picture: Michael Klein

Steele Sidebottom won Collingwood’s best-and-fairest.

Treloar said this week he was finally escalating his training load after a quiet pre-Christmas period.

“This Friday will be solid and I will get some match simulation in and play some quarters and ultimately play AFLX and our scratch matches,’’ he said.

“I was pretty slow up until Christmas and then the plan was post Christmas break to really attack the second half of the pre-season and my main goal is to get through the match simulation and get as much run into my legs to prime myself for when the season starts.

“Monday and Friday match simulation I am well and truly in the thick of it and I love it.”

The Pies hope to have close to 40 fit players come Round 1, with Tim Broomhead (broken leg), Lynden Dunn (ACL), Matt Scharenberg (ACL) long-term injuries and Will Kelly rehabbing October ankle surgery.