COLLINGWOOD will make sweeping changes for its trip to face under-fire Fremantle, ruling out Jordan De Goey, Brayden Maynard, Brody Mihocek and Scott Pendlebury.
Mihocek has an abdominal strain while Maynard, De Goey and Pendlebury are all officially being “managed” amid a five-day break and travel for Thursday’s game.
“They all won’t play – somewhat deliberate for most of them,” coach Craig McRae said.
“‘Checkers’ (Mihocek) has got a bit of an abdominal strain which will keep him out hopefully only for one week, we’ll see how that goes.
“And then the other three will be managed, and we planned this – it was a long time ago. We saw the draw when it came out and thought, ‘Let’s be strategic in this.'”
Maynard has been managing plantar fasciitis and was originally going to be rested against Geelong, before Collingwood delayed it a week.
After an interrupted pre-season, midfield dynamo De Goey has failed to hit his explosive best.
The Pies plan to use De Goey’s break from playing to bank aggressive training loads.
“Jordy will just be managed this game,” McRae said.
“We’re sort of like one step forward, one step back with Jordy at the moment, we’d like to be going a bit faster than what we are with him.
“But we’ve got to play the long game. We have patience … because the plan is to get him going in the coming weeks, and this is part of that.”
“We’re deliberate in saying we’re not going to chase our tail,” he said.
“We’re going to just add his loads and training loads when we can.
“And this week is five days – it just doesn’t allow for that.”
Returning defender Jeremy Howe and held over emergencies Ed Allan, Lachie Sullivan and Oleg Markov are set to play, while McRae could hand a debut to “old-school full-forward” Charlie West.
The 19-year-old has impressed in the VFL and will travel but will have to prove his fitness after a foot complaint.
Charlie West kicks the ball during Collingwood’s clash against Sydney in the VFL on March 22, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos
McRae is expecting a fired-up Fremantle, and a hostile environment at Optus Stadium, after the Dockers were battered by St Kilda.
He showed his players footage of Fremantle practising contested work at training, along with Justin Longmuir’s post-match press conference.
When asked which bits of Longmuir’s press conference he had shown, McRae said: “Oh just the things that he said that was lacking.
“So if it’s lacking, you’d expect it to be there – or you’d want it to be. So we’re not going to shy away from what’s coming.
