AFL 2025: Collingwood set to tackle Fremantle without four of its best players on Thursday

Collingwood will make four major changes for its Thursday night clash with Fremantle, leaving 948 games worth of experience on the sidelines.

Collingwood will strategically manage three of its best players for its Thursday night clash with Fremantle while another will be briefly sidelined through injury.

The Magpies, coming off a five-day break with the longest trip in football, will be without Scott Pendlebury, Brody Mihocek, Brayden Maynard and Jordan De Goey.

Mihocek is the only player to be out through injury this week after succumbing to abdominal pain he has played through for weeks.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae said leaving 948 games worth of experience on the sidelines was a “somewhat deliberate” plan conjured ahead of the season.

“’Checkers’ (Mihocek) has got a bit of an abdominal strain which will keep him out, hopefully only for one week, we’ll wait and see,” he said.

“The other three will be managed; we planned this to be honest a long time ago. We saw the draw come out and we thought ‘let’s be strategic in this’.

“(Maynard) has had something (foot) ongoing all season and we’ve managed him through that. We saw this opportunity a long way out.

“He could arguably play but we’re going to set himself back further and further if we keep pushing this.”

Jordan De Goey is one of the four Magpies missing this week’s clash. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Collingwood hope De Goey will return after just one week, but the dynamic Magpie spent just five minutes at training on Tuesday.

McRae urged patience with De Goey, insisting the premiership star would come good in coming weeks.

“We’re sort of one step forward, one step back with Jordy at the moment, we’d like to be going a bit faster than what we are with him,” he said.

“We’ve got to have patience, we’re asking our Collingwood faithful to have patience because the plan is to get him going in coming weeks.

“His groins are fine, it’s sort of managing loads and how much can he do around training and playing.

“He’s literally only just started getting consistency with training and playing in the same week, which is hard to do in this league.”

The Magpies withdrew Jeremy Howe, Oleg Markov, Lachie Sullivan, Ed Allan and Charlie West from the VFL last week in preparation for their quick turnaround.

McRae said Collingwood fans had plenty to look forward to if West was to make his AFL debut against the Dockers.

“(West) is definitely in the mix, we’ll take him to Perth. For as long as I have been a coach, setting people up to be successful has always been my philosophy,” he said.

Uncapped Magpie Charlie West has ‘sticky hands’, according to coach Craig McRae. Picture: Mark Stewart

“He hasn’t trained over the weekend, we managed him for this game potentially and he hasn’t trained. He trained today (and did) well, so it’ll just be ‘is he going to be at 100 per cent to show what he’s got as an 18-year-old in AFL footy for the first time?’

“Charlie is an 18-year-old, a big lad, I reckon he’s the old-fashioned full forward, like an Allen Jakovich, big barrel chested coming out and taking contested marks.

“He’s been averaging four goals a game at VFL for most weeks, he’s got sticky hands. We’re excited for what he can be, again he’s 18, most key forwards don’t come good until mid-20s, but we’re excited by what he can do.”