AFL Injury List 2024: Carlton Quartet remains sidelined despite avoiding catastrophic injury
As the AFL season draws to a close, clubs are dealing with injuries during this crucial part of the schedule.
Which players for your team are injured?
Collingwood coach Craig McRae has been urged to look to the future and make a host of changes for the remainder of the 2024 AFL season, with the likes of Tom Mitchell, Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom all on the chopping block. The Pies’ dream of snaring back-to-back flags for the first time since 1935-36 looks almost certainly over after a 66-point thrashing from Hawthorn on the weekend left them 13th.
It was the heaviest defeat of premiership coach McRae’s tenure and leaves the club likely to miss the top eight in what has been a horror campaign. The Magpies face Richmond next round before a tough run home against Carlton, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne
However, Collingwood has to face the harsh reality that their team is getting older. Even if the proud club may be too late to salvage this year, it gives them the ideal chance to give some of their less experienced players a taste of what they can do. The Pies presently have 11 players on their roster that are above 30, which is a result of having the oldest squad in the competition in Round 19.
This includes the championship trio of Steele Sidebottom (34), Dan McStay (29), Jamie Elliott (33), Brody Mihocek (34), Tom Mitchell (32), Will Hoskin-Elliott (35), and Jack Crisp (34). All three of these players have contracts expiring at the end of the year.
Magpies president Jeff Browne told the Herald Sun earlier this year that the team would keep trying to bolster the roster through trades in an effort to maintain their flag domination. They were successful in doing so before adding McStay, Mitchell, Bobby Hill, and Billy Frampton to their 2023 flag run.
As their chances of winning the championship in 2024 are virtually gone, Leigh Montagna, a former player for St Kilda, thinks they should start considering the wider picture.
Last year, it was praised for being among the oldest Premiership teams ever. The football team needs to make some important decisions because the situation is starting to get concerning. With which eleven players can they continue? How many until they begin to move past? Is it removing them from the roster or not using them in the senior squad? And attempt to draw in additional young people.
“Yeah, a lot has gone wrong for them this year, but they are keeping the larger picture in mind. They have stated clearly that they do not necessarily want to rebuild and that they will keep bringing in and trading for players for the time being.
In addition to having an aging roster, Montagna feels that the Pies lack new talent outside of star rookie Nick Daicos. With just Isaac Quaynor, Hill (both 25), Beau McCreery, Charlie Dean (both 24), Reef McInnes, Fin Macrae (both 23), Daicos, Ned Long (22), and Harvey Harrison (both 22) exposed at the highest level, the Pies have an unusually inexperienced group at the club who are all under 25 years old.
“We’re really clutching, there’s a handful of players 25 and under, but this is all they really have that we’ve seen, so there’s not a lot there,” Montagna continued. They genuinely depend on these guys, who are in their late twenties to early thirtys. To what extent can they carry them, is the question. Must they keep adding to their roster in an attempt to win one or two more premierships? They can rejoice since they have won their flag.
“However, I believe that at some point they will need to start putting some drafting in because there isn’t much potential under the age of 25. They will be in a hole for a very long time, even if they manage to win one more premiership.
