{"id":503466,"date":"2026-02-25T16:12:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503466\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:12:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:12:48","slug":"veteran-pies-pair-unlikely-to-feature-in-opening-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503466\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Pies pair ‘unlikely’ to feature in Opening Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Craig McRae provides an update on Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe\n <\/p>\n

Jeremy Howe and Darcy Moore celebrate after the qualifying final between Collingwood and Melbourne at the MCG on September 7, 2023. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

COLLINGWOOD’S backline faces a major challenge in its season opener against St Kilda, with key defenders Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe both “unlikely” to feature.<\/p>\n

Magpies coach Craig McRae said the club was taking a cautious approach with the pair’s calf injuries, indicating neither will be rushed back for the blockbuster Opening Round clash against a new-look Saints at the MCG.<\/p>\n

“They’re both unlikely to play early in (Opening Round), but they’re maybe touch-and-go for a little bit after that,” McRae said on SEN on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“But they’re both progressing well, they’ve just had recurring calf injuries, which is just part of our learning around their bodies.<\/p>\n

“But they won’t play early in the season.”<\/p>\n

Speaking at AFL Captains Day on Monday<\/a>, Moore indicated that his recovery was tracking in the right direction but said there was still ground to make up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Have to map out loads and that sort of stuff with our high performance team, but it’s looking pretty good,” Moore told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

“I had a minor calf niggle in January, I’ve been on a bit of a modified training program, building up. But I had a really big last couple of weeks with training loads and stuff, so feeling really great and the body feels ready to go.”<\/p>\n

Collingwood captain Darcy Moore speaks to Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield ahead of the 2026 AFL season. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, McRae said Bobby Hill’s wellbeing remained the club’s priority as the Magpies balance supporting the star forward personally with the expectations of elite performance.<\/p>\n

The 2023 Norm Smith Medallist took a leave of absence in January to deal with a personal matter<\/a> and has been away from the club since the Christmas break.<\/p>\n

“Bobby is working on himself at the moment. We’re hoping that he’ll be in the program in the short or medium term. We’ll see how that progresses,” McRae said.<\/p>\n

“But I think there are two parts to this situation \u2026 I want to be a coach, and we want to be an environment where we just love and care for our people, all our people, from players to staff, and then there’s the high-performance part.<\/p>\n

Craig McRae (right) chats with Bobby Hill during Collingwood’s training session at Olympic Park Oval on September 16, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n

“But we’ll continue to love and support him, and at the right time, get him in the environment to push forward for high performance.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been speaking to him regularly, yesterday even. I’m constantly talking to Bobby.<\/p>\n

“It’s probably a bit too early to say (when he\u2019ll return), but we’re confident that it’s progressing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig McRae provides an update on Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe Jeremy Howe and Darcy Moore celebrate after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-503466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}