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Winged Magpies returning to strength
Four of Collingwood's stars will come into the JLT team for this week with hope yet that star forward Jamie Elliott could still be a chance to play round one.
After a dreadful first match Collingwood will be closer to full strength for its next - and last - JLT match with Adam Treloar, Jeremy Howe, Darcy Moore and Alex Fasolo to play this week.
Adam Treloar and Alex Fasolo both return for the Pies this week.
Photo: AAPElliott and Daniel Wells will be held out of the team this week with Elliott likely to play a VFL practice match next week. Wells, who is struggling with a heel/Achilles problem, is also a possibility to play that practice match but is not quite as advanced as Elliott.
The club is hoping that if Elliott gets through that match he could be fit for round one. The club is hopeful the same could be true of Wells though he appears less likely to be able to be fit in time for round one.
Elliott is arguably Collingwood's most important player for, in a team that finds it difficult to score, he is a point of difference as a dynamic, high-marking goalkicker.
Howe, Fasolo and Darcy Moore all played at least some of the VFL practice match last week and so will step up to a JLT match this week. Treloar, who is overcoming a foot problem, did not play the practice match but is expected to be picked to play the JLT game this week.
Collingwood have had a number of key players slow to recover from post-season surgery or carrying injuries through this year but have maintained a confidence that the vast majority would be fit by round one despite the interrupted pre-seasons.
Elliott and Wells are the slowest in the recovery group but football manager Geoff Walsh said both were still a chance for round one.
"Both are about level in terms of progress, Elliott is probably a little bit ahead of Wells. Jamie has come on particularly in the last couple of weeks, the doctors and physios have been pleased with the way he has come on,'' Walsh said.
"I think they will end up having to do something in the week between (JLT and round one) in the VFL scratch match.
"We will get a VFL run into those blokes. Is it sufficient? Ideally no, but the medical and conditioning people think they will potentially be at a sufficient level."
Collingwood was disappointing in their first match against the Giants. They fielded a young side but still offered little in effort or intensity from players hoping to press a claim for senior selection as the Giants romped away from them.
Inside midfielder Taylor Adams was used across the half-back line where Nathan Buckley is looking at using him this year to enable Brayden Maynard to be pushed into the midfield.
Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on ‘Boots for Kids’. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victoria’s cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books - five sports books and two true crime books.
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