Cats stars approve of Pies\u2019 pre-game shake-up as greats laud \u2018new innovation\u2019<\/a><\/p>\nThe formalisation of Hill\u2019s exit is expected in the coming days, which would officially see him \u2018delisted\u2019 by the club as he is contracted until the end of 2030. Thus, he will qualify as a delisted free agent come October as he seeks to continue his 102-game AFL career at a third club.<\/p>\n
The Northam Barons product has been absent from the club in recent times, having made sporadic appearances at the KGM Centre over the last 12 months while dealing with personal issues.<\/p>\n
The Magpies felt his absence in the forward half, with key tall Dan McStay playing what at times felt like a lone hand with five majors from 10 disposals. <\/p>\n
Cats cash in on ‘uncharacteristic’ Pies | 03:28<\/p>\n
McRae\u2019s side conceded nine of the first 10 majors for the night, which saw them at one stage trail by 49 points just 12 minutes after quarter time.<\/p>\n
Their deficit closed to as little as 16 points at the start of the last quarter, however injuries to Jeremy Howe (arm) and Harry Perryman (hamstring) made a comeback one step too many with two men down on the interchange. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a major part in the opposition playing really well and taking their chances. We looked a bit disconnected at times going forward ourselves; we had plenty of chances early and didn\u2019t quite make the most of those,\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, I was proud of how we did fight back … there\u2019s a great fight and spirit in our group that just don\u2019t want to give up. Ultimately, you only get four points … but I rewarded that (fight) to the group post-game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve still got time. We\u2019ll lick our wounds, and get moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his wounded soldiers, 36-year-old veteran Howe is set to go under the knife after another blow to an arm that has already endured serious knocks.<\/p>\n
Harry Perryman watches on after being ruled out of the match in the second term with a left hamstring injury.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHowey\u2019s unfortunately got a fracture around the same place he fractured a few years ago \u2014 funnily enough, against the Cats,\u201d McRae revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping it\u2019s on the minor end. He\u2019s gone to hospital to get it checked out. The likelihood is he\u2019ll probably need an operation, but it\u2019s probably too early to tell until the surgeons and specialists have seen it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe things I\u2019ve been told, it\u2019s on the minor end … it\u2019s nothing like the last one, but he\u2019s got a plate in there since the injury. It\u2019s something around that.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Perryman\u2019s) got a minor hamstring, on the opposite side than he did earlier in the year. Again, scans will reveal the nature of that, but at this stage it\u2019s diagnosed on the minor end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collingwood has nine days to bounce back from the loss, before travelling across the country to take on West Coast next Sunday afternoon at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood coach Craig McRae has again reinforced his eternal love and support behind exiting star Bobby Hill, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-833729","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833729","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=833729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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