Ginnivan in again? Magpies lose Sidebottom for Cats game because of foot injury

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Collingwood have lost veteran Steele Sidebottom to injury, leaving the door open for livewire forward Jack Ginnivan to be a potential fire starter for the Magpies as they seek to reignite their finals push against Geelong.

While defender Nathan Murphy is poised to face the reigning premiers after training strongly on Wednesday, Sidebottom will miss at least this week due to a foot injury.

A foot injury will keep Steele Sidebottom out of Collingwood’s team for this week’s match against Geelong.Credit: Getty

The Pies, already without young superstar Nick Daicos, will make at least two changes to the side that was crunched by Hawthorn last week, their second loss in a row.

There has been much soul-searching this week at the Holden Centre, starting with a frank review on Monday and a spirited training session on Wednesday.

Pies coach Craig McRae declared his top of the ladder team would go into the showdown against the Cats as the hunted.

“How much are we hungry versus the opposition? How much are we wanting to hunt and chase as hard as what we did maybe earlier?” McRae said.

Jack Ginnivan looms as a possible inclusion for the Magpies on Friday night.Credit: Getty Images

“We’re working towards not that being the case. Again, we’ve put some things around this week setting it up that we’re going to hunt and then we’ll see what we get from that.”

The Pies were due to conduct their selection meeting on Wednesday afternoon but McRae, who said Tom Mitchell would retain his place despite a poor game last week, strongly hinted against making wholesale changes.

“It’s an interesting balance: do you trust a pattern of behaviour and trust the credits in the bank, or do you go, ‘I think we just might need a little bit of spark here’,” McRae said.

“My take on things mostly is to back people, and we’ve done it for two years. You think a guy is subbed out, he might get dropped or moved to the VFL, and we go, ‘We’re going to back you in’, and then you really know.

“So we might back a few in and see if we get a spike and what comes from that.”

Ginnivan was a key part of the Magpies’ stunning rise last year, booting 40 goals, but has lost his spot to Bobby Hill. An emergency last week, he is now in strong contention for his first senior game since round 12.

“We need to work through it as a match committee and look for energy in some players, and he’s one that can give us something,” McRae said.

Ginnivan’s inclusion could hinge on Pat Lipinski being pushed on to the wing vacated by Sidebottom, while veteran forward Will Hoskin-Elliott and speedster Oleg Markov – also emergencies last week – will have their names firmly in the frame for a promotion.

Sidebottom had played four games after missing seven weeks with a knee injury sustained in his 300th game. He is no certainty to be available next round either, against Brisbane.

“He’s got a foot injury that plays up a little bit that he’s been carrying for a couple of years and every now and again, it gets a bit grumbly. Right now, it’s a bit grumbly,” McRae said.

“He just needs an extra bit of time to recover. Not sure exactly what that time is, hopefully it’s next week, but we’ll let that settle and see what it looks like.”

Mitchell has managed only one full game from the past four rounds, but McRae rejected notions the recruit was injured.

“He’s a tough player – and he’s gonna get an opportunity to go be a tough player this week,” McRae said.

Though the coach said the Pies had increased their training loads with a view to being primed for the finals, he said that did not excuse their recent form.

“But when you go to the VFL a day later and you see the same patterns of behaviour, you go, ‘OK, what’s going on here?’” McRae said.

“There’s just certain parts of our game that didn’t show up. And so we addressed that again today, and we’ll get to work on it.

“The great thing is two days’ time we get to go out and show it in front of Friday night lights – this is the team we want to be.”

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