> Watch assistant coaches Nathan Buckley, Mark Neeld and Scott Watters address the media on WednesdaySATURDAY’S grand final will require a lot more of Collingwood’s back six than simply stopping St Kilda superstar Nick Riewoldt according to assistant coach Scott Watters.
Veteran full-back Simon Prestigiacomo trained strongly on Wednesday to push his claims for a return to a defensive unit which Watters said would not fall into the trap of focusing solely on the game-breaking Saint.
“He’s one player, he’s a terrific player and we don’t doubt that, but we’d probably be negligent if we didn’t pay attention to some other fantastic players that they’ve got,” Watters said after a light training session at Gosch’s Paddock on Wednesday.
“When you start to focus on one, you place them above the others, and you can really get bitten by some of the other players, so it’s really been a complete look at their forward set-up [in preparation].
“We’re across the lot of them.”
Watters was coy on Prestigiacomo’s chances of forcing his way back into the line-up, but backed the club’s sports science team to deliver the veteran in appropriate physical condition if called upon despite not playing for six weeks.
Click here to recap the live chat from Gosch's Paddock.
The full-back completed the training session unhindered by the severely corked thigh he suffered in round 20, but perhaps tellingly, Watters was bullish about the achievements of his group, particularly young key defenders Ben Reid and Nathan Brown who have got the job done in Prestigiacomo’s absence.
“They’ve given me no reason to think that they won’t handle whatever challenge comes their way,” Watters said. “For a young group they’re actually very level-headed and very mature. Ben Reid and Nathan Brown, I think, have added great enthusiasm to our group this year.
“I think when you’re looking at selection you weigh up a whole lot of things and experience is one of those factors. Form, fitness, history on that player; there are so many different factors.
“Experience is certainly one, but you can also ignore youth at your own peril. Sometimes the enthusiasm of a young player also counts for an enormous amount. There are a lot of factors to consider.
“The team really does come first as far as selection goes.”
Watters said between one and up to five different defenders could play on Riewoldt depending on how the game takes shape, but wasn’t keen to attach a name to the big job just yet.
“You can’t pre-empt that now, we’ll have some plans in place, but we’ve just got to see what the game throws our way,” he said.
“I think whenever you plan for a player, who is a terrific player, you have a number of different options available.
“We think we’ve got three or four players [who can play on him]. A couple of our players have had good history on Nick, so we’ve got multiple options that we’d use during a game.
“You also rely extremely heavily on the team defence that you set up to limit that type of player’s impact.”
