Nathan Buckley has an intriguing decision to make on Sam Murray’s replacement at half-back
A CHOICE between the young and the old looms for Collingwood as it prepares for its first finals series in five years with the sudden loss of half-back speedster Sam Murray.
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A CHOICE between the young and the old looms for Collingwood as it prepares for its first finals series in five years with the sudden loss of half-back speedster Sam Murray.
Coach Nathan Buckley has two weeks to decide whether Nathan Murphy, 18, has the composure for September or Tyson Goldsack’s 31-year-old body can be trusted after just two VFL games following a knee reconstruction.
Teenager Flynn Appleby could also be considered after breaking through for nine games this year.
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Goldsack makes his return against Sandringham on Saturday and, if he gets through unscathed, will play for the VFL Magpies again in their first final next week.
It is understood that while the 2010 premiership player’s knee is clinically stable, the graft used is at risk of rupturing because it is still strengthening.
Goldsack’s graft would be at about 80 per cent capacity, given he is attempting a return about three months ahead of schedule.
The popular clubman broke down in the dying minutes of the club’s pre-season victory against the Western Bulldogs in Moe on March 10 and he underwent surgery 12 days later.
Murphy, a former cricketer, opened his AFL innings with 14 disposals last round against Port Adelaide as an intercepting defender who the Magpies ranked in the top 10 at last year’s draft.
The Brighton Grammar boy will get his second chance to impress Buckley against Fremantle at Perth Stadium.
The Murphy or Goldsack selection adds another moving piece to Collingwood’s depleted backline.
Injured star Jeremy Howe - who should also return in the finals - described the defence as a “hybrid set-up” buzzing off the youthful energy from Murphy, Jack Magden and Brayden Maynard.
Murphy was set to be drafted at No.6 if Rising Star favourite Jaidyn Stephenson was gone but was still available at the club’s next selection, No.39.
Murray, 20, has been invited to next Friday’s AFL Rising Star event as the Round 3 nomination and ex-Magpie Rhyce Shaw moulded him into an AFL player as his coach in the NEAFL.
Shaw shifted Murray from the forward line to a half-back flank last year.
“We really haven’t had a player like (Murray) since Harry O’Brien, or Heritier Lumumba,” Collingwood recruiter Derek Hine told the Herald Sun this year.
“Someone who would really take the game on and the crowd would go up for. For him to do that in game three, he’s been really good.
“He’s made for the MCG, isn’t he? He’s a beauty.”
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