"Strange call": Could Collingwood rue not resting more players?

Kane Cornes and Gerard Whateley have both criticised Collingwood’s decision to not rest players following their 63-point loss to Brisbane.

With a spot in the Wildcard secured irrespective of any result on Friday night against the Lions, the Magpies only made two changes to their side, with one being forced due to the injury of Isaac Quaynor.

With Collingwood having the oldest list in the competition, there had been question marks over why Craig McRae had played a stronger side than what they needed to.

That criticism has been compounded by the fact the AFL’s games record holder Scott Pendlebury suffered a knee bursa, seeing him unable to finish the match.

Speaking after the defeat, the SEN Fireball host felt they could have rested several of their stars despite the AFL’s Football boss Greg Swann releasing a memo requiring clubs to commit to their obligation of performing at one’s merit in the final home and away round.

“I wonder what the pressure was like from the AFL?” Cornes pondered on SEN’s Crunch Time.

“There absolutely would have been pressure from them (the broadcaster).

“On the AFL, we saw the Swanny memo or whatever it was a few weeks ago about the warning of clubs to do that (not rest players).

“So, did that play into it? Did they just think, we'll treat it as a mini training run and that's better than putting our players through a training run? That's the only sort of counterview that I can give you.  

“I just wouldn't have played both Daicos boys, (Darcy) Cameron, (Jordan) De Goey, probably (Billy) Frampton.

“We said that during the week, a lot of people did. So, it was a strange call.”

The former 300-game player for Port Adelaide took a special focus on Pendlebury’s injury, having wondered if the 38-year-old would be able to play out a full match.

“Pendlebury as well is an ongoing issue for him because his body is starting to break down now,” he continued.

“But if he's not fresh, if he's not off a rest, he's starting to get those niggles and those injuries that bob up.

“We saw him do a calf in a big final last year, so they got some concerns over him, and you wouldn't be thinking that he's gonna be able to get through four quarters of high quality, high intensity finals footy for the rest of the year.”

Whateley also questioned what effect Swann’s memo had on Collingwood’s preparations for this clash, believing it could be something they think about throughout the offseason.

“I think the AFL's attitude muddied the whole waters on this,” Whateley explained.

“And Craig McRae maybe didn't know what he was supposed to do, but the truth was in his press conference last night.

“If you pick out the lines, there'll be no review of this; it was a compromise night, during the week I was prepping for next week.

“But why they just didn't take the final step and sit blokes (out)?

“These things are only ever answered in hindsight, it's true. But I would maintain that for two weeks they've had the capacity to make that decision.

“If they do get knocked over next week, they will spend all summer going, ‘What the hell were we doing in Round 24?’”

The Pies will have to wait Saturday afternoon to learn who they’ll face in a Wildcard clash.

Collingwood could play either the Western Bulldogs or Carlton, with both sides featuring against top six opposition in the Demons and Dockers respectively.