COLLINGWOOD has denied Darren Jolly is carrying an injury despite the dual premiership ruckman being left out of the Magpies' side for Friday night's NAB Cup clash with the Sydney Swans.
The 29-year-old was named as a substitute player for the Pies' round robin with Carlton and Richmond but spent both games sitting on the bench.
He also missed the side's Thursday training session at Gosch's Paddock.
Collingwood says, however, that his absence and lack of match practice so far is part of his management plan.
"He's going fine. He's another one who'd probably love to play but as we've said earlier, we're about getting everyone ready for round one and playing 24, 26 [games], however long our season goes this year," assistant coach Matthew Lappin said after training.
"We need him, he's a pivotal part of our side and we're just conserving him and making sure he's right to go to get through the whole season.
"It's purely management. I think we all saw the impact he had on this group last year, how important he was, so we're just looking after him and making sure he's right to go for round one and beyond."
Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom, Jarryd Blair and Chris Dawes are omissions from the Pies' squad that faced Carlton and Richmond but Lappin maintains they are also fit and firing.
"We've had a couple of changes but it's all about getting the group into the right position to be ready for round one," he said.
"It's purely rotation. There will be four or five going out each week to make sure everyone's right for round one.
"I suppose we're lucky we've got some good replacements coming in this week so hopefully we'll field a good side [because] we can see Sydney has a good side coming over.
"They're really ready to go and trying to make a statement under their new coach, so they'll be out to test themselves against the reigning premiers from last year."
Nick Maxwell, Dane Swan, Travis Cloke and Leon Davis have all been named for their first official hit outs for 2011.
International rookie Shae McNamara will run out for his first senior game and is expected to spend time up forward and relieve Cam Wood in the ruck.
Lappin said it was exciting to put the American recruit into the line up, although he warned that his game time would be closely managed because of hamstring soreness at times in the pre-season.
"I've only been here for three or four months and he's really athletic, energetic, keen to learn, and in the NAB Cup you throw these guys to the wolves and see how they stand up," he said.
"He'll get his opportunity and hopefully he does well for himself. He'll either learn he's up to the level or he'll learn exactly where he needs to be to get to that level.
"He'll jump around and he'll be bubbly. We'll keep it pretty simple for him; we'll ask him to apply really good pressure, compete hard when he's in the ruck and when he gets the ball, just make nice simple decisions."
Darren Jolly is a $331,100 ruckman in the Toyota AFL Dream Team competition
