Collingwood is looking to get their season back on track as they shift their focus to Sunday's clash with Hawthorn at the Adelaide Oval.
Travelling to South Australia for the AFL's second edition of Gather Round, the Pies will be looking to continue their impressive bounce back to form following a stoic victory against Brisbane at the Gabba last week.
In contest with a subplot, the big talking point has been Jack Ginnivan's reunion with the club he won a premiership with in 2023, with the polarising small forward wearing brown and gold this time around.
Ginnivan - who shocked the AFL landscape when he departed the AIA Centre a month after accepting his premiership medallion - has been the poster boy for 'high free kicks', with GM of Football Laura Kane admitting the small forward was unfairly adjudicated during the Easter Monday clash.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae is wary of the Ginnivan challenge and believes they know all his tricks.
"I hope he doesn't get any free kicks this week, because he never got any paid for us," McRae said to reporters on Friday.
"There's a duty of care from the tackler and we want to protect the head of all our players.
"We haven't planned for anything accordingly but we were lucky to have Jack in our system for a couple of years and many match plays against him."
As a date with his old club is building, a conversation with former Docker and Giant Tom Sheridan on the Tommy Talks podcast surfaced, where Ginnivan gave insight into his departure from the Pies, recounting how he didn't feel "valued".
McRae said on Friday that the 21-year-old was "definitely wanted" at the club but acknowledged the speed at which the trade was dealt could have left a few stones unturned.
"That's his recollection of it but he was definitely wanted," the premiership coach said.
"We love Jack, we still do. He's a premiership player and he's always welcome back at our club and we'll celebrate Jack when we have the reunion. He will always be a Collingwood player.
"It was such a short period (when Ginnivan left). It happened really quickly and there were about 12 hours of limbo. It happened Friday afternoon and the next thing on Saturday, it's done."
Veteran Steele Sidebottom is set to regain his spot in the senior side after being "managed" for the Round 3 clash with Brisbane.
Sidebottom is set to equal Tony Shaw's Club record with 313 games for the club and will equally rank second place for most Collingwood games played, with McRae confirming the news.
"Steele will play and that was a part of our management, with Will and Tom resting during the early stages of the season," McRae said,
"This is something we planned and will be good to have him back a part of the 23."
With the 33-year-old coming into the side, young midfielder Finlay Macrae could face the chopping block for the clash with the Hawks.
Macrae - who was subbed out during the third quarter last week - was seen training after the main group had exited the field.
As the VFL has a bye this weekend (due to Saturday's representative game against the SANFL), the Pies kept a handful of players out on the track to do extras, with the majority yet to feature in the senior side this year.
Finlay Macrae still training after session with other AFL-listed players. Was subbed last week after minimal impact. Sidebottom to return for Hawks clash. #collingwood #GatherRound pic.twitter.com/RekcMgV5kl
— Aidan Harrison Cellini (@aidancellini4) April 5, 2024
Collingwood is planning for superstar father-son Nick Daicos to receive attention, with tough-nut Finn Maginness getting the job previously.
The Pies have implemented methods to deal with the extra scrutiny Daicos is likely to earn (including having teammate Jack Bytel tag him at training), but won't get caught up in losing sight of the big picture.
"It's a difficult thing to go into a game to protect somebody but we certainly have plans around playing somebody on Nick at training, giving him some awareness as well as other scenarios," McRae said.
"There's one thing if you tag somebody, you have to give up a lot because Nick can play everywhere.
"The system can get pulled apart, so we don't want to tie ourselves in knots but hopefully tie them in one."
As the Pies work on freeing up their star utility, the club also adopted a unique trick to help them in South Australia.
Collingwood re-created the dimensions of the Adelaide Oval at the AIA Centre to gain any ascendancy over the Hawks, practising on the smaller field that awaits them.
"A lot of out-on-the-fulls at Adelaide Oval. A lot of people forget that so we practiced that today."
The Pies will face Hawthorn on Sunday at the Adelaide Oval to wrap up Round 4 and the second edition of Gather Round.
