Collingwood trains ahead of their preliminary final against GWS on Friday night
Darcy Moore has dismissed concerns about a wrist injury but he wasn’t taking any chances at Thursday’s captain’s run. Get the latest intel from Magpies training.
Collingwood skipper Darcy Moore was on the lightest of duties on the preliminary final eve as he nursed his sore wrist through the Pies’ captain’s run.
Moore hardly touched a footy during the session about 30 hours from the bounce against the GWS Giants, opting to instead stand alongside the coaches for most of the light run.
As his teammates went through simple groundball and handball drills, he often stood on the back of the line throwing footballs.
Moore told Channel 7 on Wednesday that talk about his wrist was “a bit of carry-on” and that he had nursed a sore right wrist through the last “few months”.
Whether Moore is at his intercepting best could be a swing point in Friday’s preliminary final against the Giants.
But the Pies showed little signs of nerves during the captain’s run.
There was no concern of choking, as forward Bobby Hill began the session sucking on a lollypop.
A day before his 50th birthday and 50th game in charge of the Pies, Craig McRae enjoyed a bit of kick-to-kick with daughter Charlie before spending 20 minutes at the end of the session signing autographs.
A full squad was on track, with 26 Magpies in action, including John Noble, Jack Ginnivan and Pat Lipinski.
Midfielder Taylor Adams was a notable absentee as he furiously works through rehab on a minor hamstring strain in a bid to be fit for next weekend’s grand final, if Collingwood gets through.
Nick Daicos looked ready to go for his return from a knee injury and enjoyed some kicking with brother Josh, while Mason Cox was one of the last on field with customary strapping on his right shoulder and he went through typical shoulder strength exercises before the session began.
Tom Mitchell and Darcy Cameron finished the session working on groundballs together as a few hundred faithful Pies fans watched on, a crowd of diehards after close to 1500 came down for the main session on Wednesday.
Adams a GF chance, Pies weigh Ginnivan sub call
– Ed Bourke
Collingwood coach Craig McRae says injured star Taylor Adams is “a chance” to return should the Magpies make the AFL grand final after confirming a straight swap for returning star Nick Daicos as the likely only change for Friday’s preliminary final.
Daicos trained strongly again on Wednesday as McRae suggested he would consider using his star in a variety of roles, including at half-forward, but warned that the Magpies were “conscious” of how much football he had missed since suffering a hairline fracture to his knee in round 21.
McRae dismissed injury concerns for captain Darcy Moore, who also trained fully at Olympic Park, as Adams was put through some light drills in his bid to return from a hamstring strain should the Pies make the grand final.
The coach called Adams “a chance” to return if Collingwood beats GWS at the MCG.
“(Daicos for Adams) looks like the most likely (change), at this stage,” McRae said.
“It’s the unknown … we’re hoping (Adams could play next week). He’s progressing really well. It was a minor hamstring strain, what that means is he’s a chance.
“You would see the work he’s doing … he’s a race against the clock, but we’ve got to get there first.”
McRae said Daicos could be thrown into a number of positions on his return depending on the match situation.
“We’re going to use him where we need him, to be honest. He might start forward, he might start mid, just whatever the game needs,” he said.
“It’s a great weapon to have, bringing back one of your best players. He looks like he’s hungry, ready to go, he’s trained on and on. (He was) a bit scratchy in the first couple of weeks back … he’s missed a lot of footy, so we’ve got to be conscious of that.”
McRae said Moore’s wrist injury had “settled down reasonably well”, as the key defender trained without the cast on his hand he had worn last week.
He said it was unlikely any adjustments would be made to the Magpies’ defensive personnel despite the difficult threat posed by Giants half-forwards Toby Bedford and Brent Daniels.
Last week’s omission John Noble is an option for McRae if he opts to go with a smaller defence, but the coach said he was happy with the balance of the backline.
“Daniels is a really good player, I think he’s underrated, we have to watch out for him. They’re good players … if you went through every player on the field you’d go, ‘Ooh, this is a concern’, but we have a team defence so we like to back our system in,” he said.
“I had a good chat to Johnny (Noble) earlier in the week – he’s disappointed, as you would be, but as a quality human that he is, he just gets back to work and he’s trained so well this week.”
Livewire Jack Ginnivan came on as the sub in the qualifying final win over Melbourne, but McRae said he had to consider whether “insurance” was needed in other positions.
“I’ve said before, we look sometimes for insurance, and then look sometimes for spark. Sometimes you can get a bit of both – I think Mason (Cox) against Brisbane a few weeks ago looked like he gave us a bit of insurance and a bit of spark,” he said.
“Jack Ginnivan’s doing a great job in that role, so we’ll see how that plays out.”
Veteran midfielder Taylor Adams is a confirmed out with a hamstring injury while Nick Daicos is set to return from his long lay-off.
Adams will be in a race against time to be fit for the grand final if the Pies win.
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