Pies feeling heat again

COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley insists his club is immune to the doomsayers despite a depressingly familiar season-opening loss, injuries to key players and a daunting Round 2 assignment against a rampaging GWS.

The football world is again circling the Pies, who will also be without suspended big man Mason Cox against a Giants side fresh from an 82-point belting of the Western Bulldogs. Playmaking Pies Alex Fasolo, Daniel Wells and Jamie Elliott will all miss again.

“When you’ve got expectations coming into the season and you lower those expectations, you’ve got to carry that as players and coaches. But we’re made of sterner stuff,” Buckley said. “I did say that we’d let our footy do the talking and we still plan to do that. At the moment it’s not doing a whole lot of talking, but we’re looking forward to the challenge on Saturday.”

Buckley will spend the next two days contemplating how to rejig his forward line in the wake of Cox’s one-match ban, adding that Darcy Moore would again start in defence.

“If Mason was missing a month it would change the consideration for us, but without giving away much to the opposition we’re about to face, we’re pretty keen to maintain a back seven as consistently as we possibly can to give them a chance to grow and evolve together,” he said.

With Fasolo set to spend at least another week in the VFL and Wells and Elliott not yet near full fitness, Buckley named Chris Mayne, Jarryd Blair, Tim Broomhead and Brayden Sier as potential inclusions.

Mayne was signed on a controversial $2 million four-year deal at the end of 2016, but hasn’t played since featuring in the first three matches of 2017.

“He had 35 touches on the weekend, not that touches are everything,” Buckley said. “He had a real good impact.”