Collingwood faces a major dilemma when trying to find a replacement for defensive “organizer” Jeremy Howe, who has been on the sidelines for months after an ugly knee injury on Friday night.
The magpies confirmed on Saturday afternoon that Howe had broken his PCL and damaged his MCL in the right knee when he collided with GWS midfielder Jacob Hopper in the second half of the magpies’ two-point loss at Giants Stadium.
Both Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley and GWS boss Leon Cameron were visibly upset that Howe had suffered such a dramatic injury at their post-game press conferences.
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Pies Star knocks badly
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But now Buckley has to do the seemingly impossible task of fixing the hole in his team’s defense that came from Howe’s absence and that could last the entire home and away season. Howe will see a specialist on Monday, with possible results including surgery.
“What it does with Collingwood is really extraordinary. It changes so much, ”said Kangaroo double premier David King Fox Footy.
“You can see why Nathan (Buckley) is so disappointed. You will hurt yourself, but you just keep your fingers crossed and hope that it is not the stars. And unfortunately it is tonight.
“We haven’t seen Collingwood too often without him.”
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After making a name for himself in the AFL for his incredibly high score, Howe moved from Melbourne to Collingwood to become one of the best defenders of the game, combining brilliant intercept play with clean ball usage.
“It changes the dynamic of the Collingwood team – the way they bounce and attack,” said great Hawthorn Jason Dunstall Fox Footy.
“And suddenly that means Nathan Buckley has to do something else because you have no other Jeremy Howe in your lineup.
“There is no player with this explosive jump who takes up the game, who attacks, scores big contested points and then bounces off and can really use the ball if it goes the other way.
“Whatever the injury is … it will fail for a while, so they have to do something different.”
King replied, “You are losing your organizer. He’s the guy who places the parts in the right places – he says to Darcy Moore: come forward, come 10 meters forward, go back 10.
“He has a great relationship with (Jordan) Roughead and Darcy, so they don’t have to communicate, a lot happens only by natural instinct. They built this shared experience and played a lot of football together, so you can’t replace that. “
King asked if Darcy Moore could take the intercept role while another key defender like Jack Madgen Moore took his place.
“So Madgen comes in as a lockdown – that’s a big question for him, he has to come in and do that,” said Dunstall.
“He did this in different phases, but didn’t he show us completely whether he could do it for the rest of the season so Moore could leave the zone and be the third big one to swim and mark?
“Or does he move one of his midfielders to the halfback who does the organization? Maybe you don’t get the interception marks, but you can find someone who can organize and then be an outlet with the ball.”
Magpies press conference
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St. Kilda champion Nick Dal Santo tried to be optimistic, pointing out that the teams have lost superstar defenders in the past and have adapted well – such as Premier Richmond only last year.
“Alex Rance had an injury last year that we said the Tigers can’t recover from. He’s just too significant. Nobody will be able to fill the void,” he said The first crack.
“Six to nine months later we looked pretty silly. So you want to think that the Collingwood defense system at best covers all the losses along the way. “
Dal Santo also suggested that midfielder Steele Sidebottom could switch to the halfback to play the key role in sales.
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