Fraser, Davis May Return For Pies' Sydney Clash

The Age

Tuesday July 1, 2008

Michael Gleeson

JOSH Fraser and Leon Davis trained for Collingwood yesterday, raising the possibility that the pair will be fit to bolster a depleted forward line.

With Anthony Rocca, Ben Reid and Sean Rusling all out injured, probably for the remainder of the season, the Magpies will meet Sydney on Saturday night with the conundrum of how to find another key forward.

Centre half-forward Travis Cloke, who was suspended for the Bulldogs game in the last round, will return but the Magpies now have a hole at full-forward that needs to be filled in the short and medium term.

Rocca, who booted six goals against Sydney in the elimination-final win last year and three in each of the two previous wins over the Swans during the season, has had surgery to repair a second crack in his ankle and as yet has no return date.

"The surgeon is quite happy with it, but does that mean he is going to be back this year? I don't know," Collingwood coach Michael Malthouse said.

"It is between a six and a 12-week injury so if we throw a dart at it, it could be six and it could be 12, so I am not going to start predicting that."

Fraser, who injured his posterior cruciate ligament in the Hall of Fame game and battled with the injury before withdrawing from the last match, leading into the split round week off, is the strongest hope for returning to aid the forward structure.

With Fraser returning, Collingwood could play three rucks and leave one of them at full-forward, but it has been loath to play three rucks previously and this would appear unlikely.

More probable would be that two rucks would be used, preferably with Fraser coming back into the side and probably using Cameron Wood as the second ruck as he has proved most adept of the big men when playing forward.

Collingwood has looked to Shannon Cox to play forward earlier in the year and has also used Nick Maxwell and Nathan Brown in key-forward roles. Rookie John Anthony was also played forward in his first game although, as with Brown, he has been groomed as a defender.

Full-back Simon Prestigiacomo, a forgotten man in the Collingwood arrangement, was a late withdrawal from the VFL team at the weekend.

Prestigiacomo played his first game of the season the previous week for the VFL side - just his second match in effectively 12 months, through injury. He would be expected to need several more games at VFL level before being considered for senior selection, although Malthouse suggested he may return sooner rather than later.

© 2008 The Age

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