Three key players back for Magpies as ruckman goes down injured

Collingwood has the Brownlow Medal favourite in Nick Daicos, but it’s the form of a star teammate that excites his coach.

Jordan De Goey is set to add another dimension to the Magpies. Picture: Michael Klein.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae saw enough in Jordan De Goey‘s return from suspension last week to declare his star is ready to “dominate the game” as the Magpies push towards a premiership tilt.

The ladder leaders will get back experienced trio Brayden Maynard, Steele Sidebottom and Dan McStay for Saturday’s clash with Fremantle but have lost ruckman Darcy Cameron to a training injury.

Cameron was forced from the training track after the warm-up on Thursday morning and was driven back to the club on a golf buggy, with McRae confirming a back injury had ruled him out of the MCG clash.

“Darcy won‘t play – unfortunately after the game he had a bit of a stiff back. He trained earlier in the week and we hoped that he would progress,” McRae said.

“We didn’t get much progression on Tuesday and then we thought we’d go again today, but he’s just not going to be right.”

McRae said De Goey, who returned last week after a three-game suspension, was on the verge of rediscovering the dominant form he possessed before the ban, which he spent doing a solid training block to prime him for the club’s run to the finals.

Jordan De Goey is ready to fire. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Ahead of De Goey’s 150th game, McRae said the 27-year-old had turned himself around this season and the Magpies were reaping the massive benefits of his mature transformation.

“He‘s had three weeks off prior to last week, which put a little bit of a comma on a great sentence which has been his season … we’re really happy with his progression on and off the field,” he said on Friday.

“We saw glimpses last week in the second half of a guy that can just really dominate the game, particularly around clearance.”

McRae said McStay’s return was not an adjustment to cater for Cameron’s loss but a comeback stalled in recent weeks by niggling injury issues.

McStay managed only five disposals and one mark playing limited minutes in his VFL return last Friday after being sidelined since round 5 with a serious finger injury.

“Dan got minutes last week … the whole plan for him was to get some game time, and that‘s continuing this week, we just want to get him some continuity,” McRae said.

“We just haven’t had our key pillars in place all year … (Brody Mihocek) is still not up, so we haven’t got that mix yet organised to find out what our best is, so we’ve got another opportunity to find out.”

Collingwood coach Craig McRae is excited by what his team can produce. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

McStay’s return helps offset the absence of Mihocek, who will miss a second match with hamstring tightness.

But McRae said he was a strong chance to return for the top-of-the-table clash with Port Adelaide next week.

“He was similar to Darcy Cameron in terms of if he could get through the week and progress and show some signs … he just wasn‘t quite good enough to progress to the next level,” McRae said.

“He didn‘t go backwards, he just didn’t press quick enough.”

Originally published as Three key players back for Magpies as ruckman goes down injured