{"id":592725,"date":"2026-04-08T04:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592725\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T04:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:54:13","slug":"afl-2026-collingwood-will-be-bolstered-by-two-key-ins-and-a-debutant-for-gather-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592725\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Collingwood will be bolstered by two key ins and a debutant for Gather Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood superstars Nick Daicos and Scott Pendlebury will make a welcome return in time for the team\u2019s crucial Gather Round clash.<\/p>\n

The Magpies went down to the Lions last Thursday but will be boosted ahead of the game against the Dockers on Friday by the inclusions of Daicos and Pendlebury.<\/p>\n

Daicos (calf) was a late out before facing Brisbane, while Pendlebury (achilles) missed the clash after showing signs of soreness against GWS the previous week.<\/p>\n

Collingwood coach Craig McRae confirmed the selection of his two returning guns on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick will play and so will Pendles, they did what they needed to do this week to get through,\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone will declare 100 per cent right to play, he\u2019s probably close to it, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll manage Nick\u2019s minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might with some others, we\u2019ve been doing that in the early part of the season, depending on injuries and the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably going into the game thinking not (playing him forward) to see what the game gives us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

The Magpies will also unveil debutant Angus Anderson against the Dockers.<\/p>\n

Anderson \u2013 drafted from SANFL power Sturt last season \u2013 collected 30 disposals, 12 clearances and a goal against Coburg in the VFL last week.<\/p>\n

McRae said Anderson\u2019s strength at clearance was too difficult to resist at the selection table this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always good to tell a player he will make his debut and Angus, not from South Australia, but clearly played there last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis last at Adelaide Oval he won a premiership with Sturt so he\u2019s got some great memories there and plenty of friends I am sure so it\u2019ll be a good homecoming for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough, he\u2019s tough. The fans will love his tackling intensity and every time we show some highlights of him at VFL, he\u2019s really smashing in and hurting the opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis contest and clearance stuff is his strength and we\u2019re playing against an opposition that is number 1 in the competition in those parts of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as AFL 2026: Collingwood will be bolstered by two major returns and a debutant for Gather Round<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood superstars Nick Daicos and Scott Pendlebury will make a welcome return in time for the team\u2019s crucial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,170575,64,63,689,55,639,3237,289384,10143,2105,133725,289382,647,12002,43961,677,19083,1124,85,289383,100132,64414,660],"class_list":{"0":"post-592725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-angus-anderson","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-australian-football-league","14":"tag-australianfootballleague","15":"tag-brisbane-lions","16":"tag-clearance-stuff","17":"tag-craig-mcrae","18":"tag-getty-images-inc","19":"tag-key-ins","20":"tag-key-returns","21":"tag-melbourne","22":"tag-newcastle-united-football-club","23":"tag-newswire-sport","24":"tag-oceania","25":"tag-scott-pendlebury","26":"tag-south-australia","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-tackling-intensity","29":"tag-tony-gough","30":"tag-tyler-lewis","31":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592725","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=592725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}