Collingwood’s premiership defence took a significant hit in the opening week of the club’s pre-season, with spearhead Dan McStay’s entire 2024 campaign in doubt following an ACL injury at training.
An uninterrupted rehabilitation for McStay, coupled with another deep finals run for the Magpies, could see the ex-Lion feature at the back end of next season, however Collingwood’s flag push will hinge on building foundations through a strong home and away run, at the very least.
The timing of McStay’s injury is unfortunate because the team is currently testing a number of train-on prospects for the upcoming Supplemental Selection Period, giving their own reinforcements an opportunity to establish themselves as McStay’s primary replacement.
Collingwood has a number of options to replace their key forward, including adding players to their roster, rearranging their key position stocks, or even using their depth ranks.
The clear choice to replace McStay is forward Ash Johnson, who has proven more than capable during his two and a half seasons in black and white at the AFL level.
The experienced recruit participated in a career-high 15 games in 2023, scoring at least one goal in 13 of those outings for a total of 21 major goals.
Johnson can play a similar role as a crucial link-up player in Collingwood’s front half with his strong aerial ability and clean kicking, albeit he is not a perfect replacement for McStay. This leaves Jamie Elliott and Brody Mihocek as the essential players in Craig McRae’s attacking system.
With the opportunity there for the taking for Johsnon, the upside-high athletic forward could be the breakout player for the Magpies in 2024.
Similar can be said of Reef McInnes. After playing the 11 games over the past two years, McInnes has only shown glimpses of his best football at the top level.
McRae was particularly excited by the Next Generation Academy graduate’s potential ahead of the 2023 campaign, however, the form of an eventual premiership-winning forward line left the 20-year-old to feature in just five matches.
With an average of 40.2% of the game’s time on the field, four of those came either as the substitute or after McInnes was taken off the field. In his first game of the season, he only had four disposals against Geelong, but he scored two goals and McInnes was initially chosen before Johnson.
