Didak played through last year’s finals series with a severe injury to his pectoral muscle and underwent the scheduled surgery last November. The 28-year-old has trained with the main group over the last month and will be better for the run ahead of the season proper.
A star-studded Magpie line up will be on show on under the lights with Heath Shaw, Luke Ball, Chris Tarrant, Brent Macaffer and Leigh Brown all returning to the side after missing last week’s away win against West Coast.
The well-publicised injury to skipper Nick Maxwell (injury list) is the only experienced loss with the Magpie match committee resting a batch of youth including Ben Sinclair, Alex Fasolo, Shae McNamara and Jye Bolton.
Tyson Golsack, Tom Young and Sinclair have been listed as the three emergencies.
Head coach Mick Malthouse will return to his regular duties after implementing his customary assistant-coaching rotation policy over the preseason. Nathan Buckley, Matthew Lappin and Mark Neeld all experienced success in their preseason games and will serve under Malthouse on Friday night.
Collingwood will attempt to secure just its second pre-season/night grand final since the competition formed in 1956. The Magpies took home the silverware in the night 1979 grand final with a 28-point win over Hawthorn.
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2011 NAB Cup Grand Final
Collingwood v Essendon
Friday 11 March
Etihad Stadium
Collingwood
B: Harry O’Brien, Chris Tarrant, Alan Toovey
HB: Brent Macaffer, Ben Reid, Heath Shaw
C: John McCarthy, Dane Swan, Sharrod Wellingham
HF: Andrew Krakouer, Chris Dawes, Luke Ball
F: Alan Didak, Travis Cloke, Leigh Brown
Foll: Darren Jolly, Scott Pendlebury, Dale Thomas
Int: Leon Davis, Lachlan Keeffe, Cameron Wood, Jarryd Blair, Simon Buckley, Steele Sidebottom, Dayne Beams, Ben Johnson
Emg: Ben Sinclair, Tyson Goldsack, Tom Young
