Collingwood captain Darcy Moore is “not playing at a level where he has” but has the full support of coach Craig McRae ahead of a Friday night showdown with Essendon that Josh Daicos is likely to miss.
While defensive hardman Brayden Maynard “did more than enough” at training on Wednesday to show he’d overcome a quad issue, Daicos looked “proppy” according to McRae as the star wingman deals with a corked calf.
Daicos hardly trained with his teammates and the coach conceded he was in a “race against the clock” to face the Bombers, with both teams hitting the clash on the back of losses.
“So Josh, he still looks a little proppy for my eyes but I’m getting told that we’ll give him every opportunity,” McRae said.
“So we’ll give him every chance to get to the line.”
Ruckman Darcy Cameron also copped a knee to the ribs during training, but McRae said he would play.
McRae was happy to leap to the defence of premiership skipper Moore who has come in for criticism on the back of taking just a single intercept mark in his team’s loss to the Suns on the Gold Coast last Saturday.
With regular tag-team defender Jeremy Howe playing more of a forward role, and without the retired Nathan Murphy, Moore’s returns in 2024 have been well below those of 2023, a season in which he led his team to the premiership and earnt All-Australian selection.
McRae said he recently had a “deep and meaningful” chat with Moore, who is well aware he’s not at his best, and they would work together on his improvement.
“Darcy and I catch up regularly and funnily enough, last week we had a really good deep and meaningful (chat) on the couch about lots of things,” McRae said.
“We want Darcy at his best. He’s clearly not playing at a level where he has previously – last year he was an All-Australian and he’s not in All-Australian form.
“But we back him in, support him and look for little ways we can improve him.
“We’re not gonna stand still because we need him to be at his best.”
Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes has described Moore’s form as “awful” and claimed he is only playing one good game in every six.
Moore has also been in the spotlight for the use of his knee in marking contests that contributed to the punctured lung suffered by Melbourne star Christian Petracca and a fractured a vertebrae for Gold Coast captain Jarrod Witts.
But McRae said his captain wasn’t fazed by the criticism and was content to improve areas of his game that needed work.
“He wouldn’t even know it’s happening. He’s such an introvert in terms of the footy media,” he said.
“It’s a part of the game I’m not sure you can ever get rid of.
“I do think we are on the right track in protecting the head … whether it goes further than that, time will tell.”
Despite being overrun by the Suns after taking a late lead on the Gold Coast last week, McRae said his team’s record in close games was still good enough to put fear into the rest of the competition.
“I didn’t realise we had an aura but I’m sure if the game’s close, I wouldn’t have thought anyone would want to be playing against us,” he said.
The Magpies and Bombers last played on Anzac Day when the match finished in a draw.
