Collingwood
B: Cox / Prestigiacomo / Shaw
HB: O’Brien / N. Brown / Maxwell
C: Clarke / Didak / Toovey
HF: Thomas / Cloke / Medhurst
F: Anthony / L. Brown / O’Bree
Foll: Fraser / Lockyer / Pendlebury
IC: Davis / Johnson / Dick / Swan
EMG: Beams / Goldsack / Corrie
IN: Heath Shaw, Brad Dick, Leigh Brown.
OUT: Ben Reid, Tyson Goldsack, Chris Bryan (All Omitted).
Melbourne
B: McDonald / Warnock / Rivers
HB: Frawley / Johnson / Moloney
C: Jetta / Cheney / Bartram
HF: Petterd / Miller / McLean
F: Sylvia / Martin / Davey
Foll: Spencer / Bruce / Green
INT: Bennell / Jones / Morton / Bate
EMG: Dunn / Meesen / Newton
IN: Colin Sylvia, Stefan Martin.
OUT: Simon Buckley (Groin), Colin Garland (Foot).
The teams are in and once again the Beams obsessed Collingwood faithful will have to wait a little longer before seeing the young lad strut his stuff in the real thing. Whilst I understand the enthusiasm that surrounds new draftees – which have understandably been heightened by some exciting early glimpses – there is no need to rush the likes of Beams and Sidebottom into the side despite our disappointing start.
What will please supporters is the return of Heath Shaw and Brad Dick. Heath Shaw will improve our side greatly, especially teaming up with Cox coming out of defence. Brad Dick is highly rated within the club and it was never going to be long before we got to see him again at senior level. With Davis looking to spend more time in the middle, hopefully Dick can give us a spark around the forward line — especially when entering the forward 50 as Dick’s foot skills are his most talked about attribute.
The interesting selection this week is that of Leigh Brown, mostly because he has been selected at the expense of our secondary ruckman Chris Bryan. Obviously, we would be looking for Leroy to be our back-up in the ruck on Saturday and it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out. Overlooking both Wood and Bryan is sure to send a message to both players, who may have fallen into a false sense of security that at least one of them was going to be a sure selection each week.
Personally, I’m a fan of the decision to leave both Wood and Bryan on the sidelines. Leigh Brown is arguably more mobile than both and based on the respective efforts of Wood and Bryan around the ground over previous weeks; Brown surely couldn’t be any worse. The most important aspect about the decision is the message that it sends; that Wood and Bryan aren’t simply competing against one another for senior selection.
I’ll admit that I’m a little worried about retaining both Toovey and Johnson for this match, as our foot skills are a continual problem and both players fall amongst the usual suspects. I can understand keeping Johnson, as he is considered a senior player and it appears that they want to give him an opportunity early on to redeem himself — I just hope we know when to cut our losses if faced with more mediocre performances.
Toovey put in some good performances during the pre-season and is the sort of player who Malthouse favours. In fairness, one player out of Goldsack, Cox and Toovey was going to be chopped and I think they picked the right one based on exposed form so far this year. Goldsack will undoubtedly return at some stage, but needs to find some sustained form. After a forgettable opening round, Toovey would want to impress this weekend as he would be amongst the most vulnerable players currently within the side.
All in all, three changes sounds about right to me. Whilst our opening round loss was disappointing and the outrage expressed by some was somewhat predictable considering there is always an extra amount of expectation and emotion invested into the first game of the year; the fact is we only lost by four points and the first quarter was essentially a write off. At these early stages, making dramatic changes would only serve to unsettle whatever team balance we managed to piece together in the last three quarters of our round one clash.
Besides, getting to see Brad Dick again after such a lengthy absence is virtually the same as unveiling a new draftee. I’m excited to see how he goes and hopefully we’ll get to see some more of his memorable celebrations!
GO PIES!
