DARCY Moore and Ben Reid won't be part of a preliminary final fairytale with Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley confirming neither will be selected for the blockbuster clash with Richmond.
Moore has been declared "not fit to play", having managed just seven games for the season because of repeated hamstring injuries.
"He's looked good in patches and talking to him, he went up another notch today," Buckley said on Wednesday.
MEGA-PREVIEW Tigers v Magpies
"But if we just look at the loads he has done or not been able to do over the last month, it's too much of a risk to take.
"Neither he or we are confident he could get through a whole game, we don't have the work underneath him to know that we could make that call, as we did with Tyson Goldsack, Adam Treloar and Jeremy Howe.
"It didn't even get to match committee."
Buckley said Moore would continue to train this week – and next, if they beat the Tigers on Friday night – and attempt to ramp things up again.
"It's a hard situation, clearly he wants to play and we would love to have the option of playing him," he said.
"But, he's not passed fit … he hasn't had enough volume in his training."
Reid has been deemed fit and available but Buckley said he hadn't been selected because "we think our mix in front of the ball is pretty good at the moment".
The veteran swingman has played just six games this year and none since surgery on both knees following round 10.
"He's got a good four- or five-week block in and he's fit and available to play," he said.
"There's different guys in different scenarios. Darcy is simply not fit and ready to go, in our estimations, and 'Reidy' is but we've selected others in front of him."
However, Jordan De Goey (ankle) and Brayden Sier (thigh) are set to line up after picking up minor ailments against Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night.
Both trained on Wednesday although only De Goey took part in match simulation with Sier restricted to jogging laps.
Buckley said removing Sier from the full-ground drills gave him an "extra 24 hours" before the prelim although they were confident he'd be right to play anyway.
De Goey looms as one of many attacking weapons for the Pies on Friday night as he shares the mantle as the team's leading goal-kicker with Will Hoskin-Elliott.
While Buckley said the Pies were fortunate to have a number of forward options including Josh Thomas, Jaidyn Stephenson, Brody Mihocek and Mason Cox, the Tigers' team defence would make it hard for De Goey to have as many one-on-one opportunities as he had against the Giants.
He also said the call to rest the 22-year-old from rounds 19 and 20 to alleviate a leg stress reaction had paid off.
"We haven't had to manage his loads during the week for the last two or three weeks, so the two weeks off in retrospect was a wise call," he said.
"You don't know what the alternative was. We might have been able to play him through and he might have been fine, but you have to say that the nick he's in now, the right decision was made because he's cherry ripe.
"He rested for those two weeks and the week leading into the qualifying final and he's up and about, as powerful and as strong as he's been in all year."
Richmond gun Dustin Martin has been under an injury cloud after suffering a bad corked thigh against Hawthorn but Buckley said they expected him to play.
"And we'll have plans for him," he said.
"We'll prepare for him to play in the midfield and forward. He'll either play mid/forward or forward/mid so we'll be ready for that.
"The reality is, Richmond will look after their backyard and we'll look after ours."
