> Malthouse fronts the media in his weekly press conferenceMICK Malthouse says some Collingwood stars are a week closer to running out in the senior side, but insists he won't be rushing them all back at once.
The Magpies coach says he'll have to wait until after Thursday's training – and even a final run on Saturday – before knowing who was available for Sunday's twilight fixture with Port Adelaide at the MCG.
But he says established stars such as Alan Didak, Paul Medhurst, Anthony Rocca and Dale Thomas wouldn't be automatic call-ups to the senior team.
While Didak (hamsring) and Thomas (knee) both trained at Gosch’s Paddock on Thursday, Medhurst (ankle) and Rocca (knee) were both absent and must be considered outside chances to face the Power.
Midfielder Dane Swan was another surprise no-show on Thursday, although he is not believed to be injured. Scott Pendlebury, despite rumours he had injured himself this week, was on the track and didn’t seem hampered.
Whatever list Malthouse has to choose from this weekend, the coach won’t be swayed by reputation.
To ensure his injury-hit stars get appropriate minutes in their legs, Malthouse said some players could find themselves making their way back to the seniors via the VFL.
Malthouse said it would be foolish to bring in so many underdone players as all required a certain amount of game time, yet not all may be capable of seeing out a full AFL match.
“What you'd end up doing is over-exposing players that probably have had that limited game time over the last month and a half,” he said from the Lexus Centre before training on Thursday
Malthouse said while his club's injury list would remain reasonably lengthy for another week, Collingwood was likely to regain some personnel for Sunday's clash with the Power.
However he was hesitant to name any names, or put a figure on exactly how many changes he could make for the clash with the Power.
“I think it was a week ago we thought on the Monday we would have had only two players out, [but] 11 missed,” he said.
“Now does that mean that that eight or nine are going to be available this week? No, I can assure you that won't be the case.”
Collingwood's injury situation is likely to be eased with the unlucky John McCarthy set to return to football after a horror run that has included knee, illness and hamstring complaints.
The future is starting to look up for Malthouse and his team – which has a 4-5 win-loss record and a month of winnable matches ahead – although the veteran coach said things had never been bleak.
“Until you're in a club environment, it's only your perception or perhaps people's want to think that we're under duress or pressure,” he said.
“You create your own pressure and every week is a pressure game.
“The mood and the vibrant people around the place haven't dropped … our expectation is that we think that if we play good enough football we'll make the eight and from there you're a chance to play in finals football.”
This event was covered live on Collingwood’s twitter account “Collingwood_FC”. To follow twitter and create your own free account click HERE.
