Collingwood face key list decisions on star veterans

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Collingwood face key list decisions on star veterans

Collingwood coach Craig McRae concedes some big list decisions are coming as the Magpies scrap to keep their premiership defence alive.

After four-straight defeats, Collingwood’s season is on the brink as they sit 13th ahead of a clash with last-placed Richmond at the MCG on Sunday.

Having lost to Hawthorn last Saturday with the oldest team in the league, the Magpies are facing end-of-season calls on their veterans.

If they don’t make any cuts to experience, Collingwood would enter 2025 with 11 players aged 30 or older on their list.

Dual premiership heroes Scott Pendlebury (37 next January) and Steele Sidebottom (34 next January) are just two Magpies who will need to weigh up their future.

“I’m speaking with Steele and ‘Pendles’ regularly, like weekly and fortnightly, not just about the future but about the now,” McRae said on Friday.

“But we’re not there yet … respectfully, we want to honour our greats and those two in particular, they live in that bracket.

“Funnily enough when it’s a premiership list it’s bulletproof, add then when it’s not, it’s got holes everywhere in it.

“But we’re going to have a bit more of a futuristic look at that … I’ll leave that to others to make all those finite details.

“We’ll be collective on making sure we get the right direction for this footy club.”

McRae is refusing to draw a line through the season, still believing anything is possible for the Magpies.

“We never talked about finals last year,” he said.

“We talk about winning a lot, but we actually don’t talk about winning the game, because that’s so much out of our control.

“It’s about the behaviours to be a winner, so nothing about the finals other than trying to be the best version of us and get this thing moving.”

Prime movers Josh Daicos and Jordan De Goey have continued to play through ********* issues but the pair are in no doubt to withdraw against the Tigers.

Big man Mason Cox returns from a two-month absence following a knee injury.

“He’s an important part of our game plan, when we’re held up and we want to kick it down the line, we have someone seven-foot (tall) and a nice target to kick to.”

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