WHEN two senior Collingwood players said earlier this week that the team was feeling the effects of a tough pre-season that contained too much international travel, were they just being too candid for their own good or, to use a current political buzzword, did they mis-speak?
Whatever the case may be, coach Mick Malthouse was not buying into the argument yesterday when he spoke to the media about today's Anzac Day match against Essendon. Twice asked directly whether he agreed with the comments by Josh Fraser and Rhyce Shaw, the Collingwood coach said he had neither seen nor heard the remarks and would not comment on something he had neither seen nor heard.
So what did Malthouse think? Was his team feeling the pinch, as evidenced by notable fade outs already this year against the Brisbane Lions and North Melbourne? "I wouldn't have thought so," he replied, before moving right on to the next topic.
Perhaps today's game will tell us more, but probably it will not. One thing it will tell Malthouse, however, is which of his players are capable of holding up on the big occasions and which are not.
The veteran coach ranks Anzac Day, with its build-up, its broader meaning, and big crowd-big stage atmosphere, as important as a final for revealing something about the character of his players.
"I've been involved in a number of Anzac Day matches, and finals," Malthouse said, "and there have been those who've come up short. But there have been others have jumped up and I've thought, 'They've shown a bit'."
"It is different," he said of such games. "It's a judgemental day. I will certainly be judging players on their capacity to play before a big crowd and (on) the occasion. I've always rated finals as a precursor to whether you keep players on your list or not, whether they can hold up, and I don't really see a great deal of difference, quite frankly, in this game.
"Players are expected to hold up on this day."
Collingwood trained at Gosch's Paddock yesterday morning, with key forward Anthony Rocca the notable absentee. Rocca was restricted to stationary bike-work inside.
As with any shortcomings in the pre-season, Malthouse was not giving anything away on any injury, saying such details would remain in-house. "Anthony is obviously a little bit sore, otherwise he would be out there," Malthouse said. "But we're not going to declare every injury."
Rocca has been named in the side, and Malthouse said: "The side we've picked is the side we expect to run down the race."
Collingwood will be without captain Scott Burns for the third game in a row and fourth time this year, however. Burns has had a calf injury, and Malthouse said the skipper was not the sort of player to make himself available unless he believed in his own mind he could go at 100%. He would be "surprised if he's not available" for next week's game against Hawthorn.
"In Scott's mind, he's not right, so you've got to go by what the player thinks," Malthouse said.
"He's not going to sacrifice himself for short-term gain to go out there and play when he may not be able to play at his best for the club, not only for the game's sake, but also for the big occasion."
With Burns, who played in the original Essendon-Collingwood Anzac Day game in 1995, sidelined and Kevin Sheedy, James Hird and Nathan Buckley — three others inextricably linked with the annual blockbuster — now retired, Malthouse could be forgiven for feeling a little lonely. But he explained that he saw things from a collective, not an individual, perspective.
"I don't see sport, and in particular team sport, as an individual rite," Malthouse said. "You can either blend in or stick out. I'm a blender."
The game, he expected, would have its usual share of heroics and heroes and, from a Collingwood point of view, he promised, it would be "fought with a vigour that's going to hopefully represent what the Anzac spirit is about".
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