Collingwood Senior Coach Craig McRae has addressed the media ahead of his side’s Round 7 clash against Essendon on Saturday.
McRae spoke about the significance of Anzac Day, confirmed some availabilities for key players, and touched on the emergence of a young midfielder.
Moore ruled out
“Yeah he (Darcy Moore) won’t play,” McRae said.
“We’ve got a five-day break going into the next game too so we it just makes sense to work him through his loads and ball in hand stuff.
“We all want more than what we get at times but Jarrod Wade made the ultimate decision, this is a high performance decision and he just hand done quite enough load.”
Sidebottom and De Goey available
“Jordy and Steele both will be available, they’ll play,” he said.
“Exciting to see those guys running around and the experience on a day like this (Anzac Day) will be something we’ll be really looking forward to having back in the team.”
Nick Daicos’ role
“They’ve (Essendon) got a couple of things that they’ve been doing that suggest they’re prepared to tag or try take away other teams’ better players,” he said.
“I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some form of close attention.
“Most teams will have a plan, it’s pretty hard to stop him though at the moment, isn’t it?
“We’ll just play Nick where we think we need him. I think his class and polish around the forward line does help us at times.”
The significance of Anzac Day
“We’re incredibly lucky to be playing on this day. I know it falls on a Saturday so there’s other games but still the opportunity to play on Anzac Day and standing there the last post and the emotion of that (is amazing),” he said.
“Our new players and new staff went to the Shrine on Monday showing a great respect for this day that again, we’re very lucky to be part of.
“We often talk about, we’ve got to embrace all of it and then we play the game not the occasion.
“We’ll be taking all the pre-game in.”
Coming up against the Bombers
“The Bombers are playing really good footy and the last couple of weeks show they’ve got most of their troops back,” he said.
“They’re playing slightly different, they’ve got a couple of other levers they’re showing, we mentioned that to our players this morning.
“It should be a great game, and a fast start would be nice.”
Angus Anderson’s first fortnight at AFL level
“A mature body coming into the system helps. We saw the same with Roan Steele last year,” he said.
“These guys have been around the block a little bit, this is not an 18-year-old kid that’s playing his first game of footy, this is a guy that’s played a lot of footy and had to work really hard to get it.
“There’s something tangible about that, you go ‘I didn’t quite get what I wanted, but now I’ve got it I’m not letting this thing go’.
“There’s a desperation and a motivation to be hungry, and he’s playing really hungry.”
