Pies stick to fit brigade
The Age
Saturday September 12, 2009
CALL them the anti-Lions. While Brisbane fielded a line-up of injured stars last night, Collingwood was taking a very different approach to September. Coach Mick Malthouse yesterday vowed only to play fit men and said the upheaval wrought by making five changes to the team to take on Adelaide tonight would leave the Magpies a stronger and fitter side.Scott Pendlebury, Dayne Beams, Josh Fraser and Anthony Rocca will all miss tonight's match with injuries €” John McCarthy was dropped. But though the pedigree of those coming into the team is, on paper at least, rather less impressive, Malthouse was unrepentant yesterday."There will be no 50-50 players going out there," he said. "In finals football the biggest mistake you can make is thinking that a name player is going to be able to overcome an injury on the field in a final."History is littered with sides ruing and wanting to take it back €” no player will go out there unless he can get through the game. That's why we are comfortable with the group we've picked."Not many sides go into the second week of the finals having just changed a quarter of their line-up, but Collingwood has shown a willingness to shake up its best 22 all year. Among its inclusions will be Cameron Wood €” charged with leading the ruck in the absence of Josh Fraser €” as well as Brad Dick, defender Tyson Goldsack and pacy midfielder Sharrod Wellingham. According to Malthouse, though, the least known among the quintet €” fourth-gamer Brent Macaffer €” could prove the most influential.While Macaffer's selection surprised some outside the club, Malthouse said those who had seen the 21-year-old in recent weeks knew he was poised to perform, perhaps as a direct forward-line replacement for Rocca, though he also offers a flexible option all around the ground."He's got the capacity to be a powerful player," Malthouse said. "We believe he can play at either end and also through the centre."The Gippsland product had been ready to play his fourth senior game 10 weeks ago but injured his knee playing for Werribee and has taken more than two months to get back into senior calculations.Macaffer led the goalkicking in the TAC Cup in 2006 and was named at full-forward in the TAC Cup team of that year. Last year he won the award for best player in Collingwood's VFL side."I don't think the occasion will worry him," Malthouse said. "Certainly, the positions we play him in won't worry him. The opponents will because they are quality opponents but he won't be foreign to any position we play him in."Fraser's knee injury, Malthouse said, was one that would most likely dog the club's No. 1 ruckman, on and off, for the remainder of his career. "It's been troubling him for a while," he said. "It's a ruckman's injury . . . ruckmen that have got that injury, until they retire are never going to be able to say categorically, 'I'm over that injury'. It's a ruckman's injury that is going to flare up from time to time."In Fraser's absence Malthouse said he was confident Wood could hold his own in the ruck against Adelaide big-man Ivan Maric. If the Pies do progress, Fraser €” who has improved markedly as the week has gone on €” is likely to feature next weekend.Nathan Buckley has not yet started his new job at Collingwood but was there yesterday, enjoying a one-on-one chat and coffee with president Eddie McGuire. Buckley had suggested earlier in the week that the Malthouse one-on-one game-plan was well-suited to unpicking Adelaide's disciplined zone. While stressing his respect for Adelaide, Malthouse admitted the Magpies would start happy underdogs despite having beaten the Crows in Adelaide less than a month ago."Our record against Adelaide has been sound," Malthouse said. "Adelaide are a very good football side, we know that . . . But I know one thing for certain, the group that go down the race will be extremely fit. The changes we've made have been players that have got an enormous amount of confidence out of the last few weeks, whether they have been in the seniors or in the VFL."Malthouse emphasised that his men would have to be efficient and careful with the ball in their hands to get past Neil Craig's systematic shutdown specialists. "We very rarely win games where we can comprehensively say we won all the indicators," he said. "Very rarely do we get more kicks, more entrances, more marks, more frees," he said. "You have got to make things count and limit the opportunities for the opposition."Missing Pendlebury and Beams but with Dick and Wellingham coming in, the Collingwood midfield needs to improve dramatically on its performance against ladder-leading St Kilda. Malthouse said his onballers had dropped off from their best form against Ross Lyon's men, failing to give the forward line enough opportunities to kick a wining score. "We just didn't get the football," he said.
© 2009 The Age