AFL 2022: Collingwood star Jordan De Goey cleared for semi-final clash with Fremantle

Injury concerns at Collingwood have been allayed as coach Craig McRae continued his call for players to act like winners.

Jordan De Goey has put his hand up to play against Fremantle. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Collingwood stars Jordan De Goey and Darcy Moore have been cleared for takeoff in Saturday’s must win semi-final clash with Fremantle.

De Goey has been on light training duties all week after damaging his right shoulder in last Saturday’s qualifying final defeat to Geelong, with scans earlier this week revealing a grade-1 sprain of the AC joint.

Coach Craig McRae conceded that De Goey play with “some discomfort” but did more training than expected on Thursday and will take on the Dockers.

“Jordy will be right to go,” McRae said.

“Funnily enough, he actually did more than we were asking. His shoulder’s going to be fine.

Jordan De Goey was all smiles at training. Picture: Michael Klein

“He may have discomfort for the rest of the year, I think, maybe.

“But according to what he needed to do today, he ran around well and we’re confident he’ll play.”

Moore left the training track after taking a knock to his knee but returned and McRae dismissed any concerns.

“In one of the contact drills he just got kneed on the knee. There‘s no issues at all,” McRae said.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has a big job after last week’s deflating defeat. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

The first-year Collingwood coach has been spending his week building positive vibes among his players who surrendered a late lead to the Cats and slumped to ground after the loss.

After the defeat he said he didn’t like the look of his players lying on the ground and had urged them to act “like winners”.

Dismissing suggestions he had “blasted” his men, McCrae instead said it was just reaffirming a season-long theme and one that became more important in finals.

“It was a conversation around, ‘Hey boys, you should be really proud of what we just did, but we’ve got more work to do so there’s no time to lay on the ground and rest and think about it, we’ve got to get up and get busy’,” McRae said.

“On Monday you walk in and you wouldn‘t know if we’d won or lost, and that’s been our theme for the whole year.

“Our players are hungry, they’re getting back to work and they’ve got more work to do.

“This time of year you need energy. You‘ve got to fill your cup back up. There’s the game itself and the longevity of the season takes a lot out of you.

“So we‘re looking at ways we can energise our playing group, and positivity and feeling good about things is maybe one way of doing that.”