The 31-year-old, who remains on Collingwood’s list despite having already accepted an assistant coaching role with Gold Coast, believes the 22 players who faced the Saints should all get the chance to finish the job.
“If I was coach I wouldn’t make any changes,” O’Bree told afl.com.au on Thursday.
“The guys that did have down games and the ones that have come under a bit of scrutiny this week will have known all week they were chances to not play.
“They’ll learn a lot from that and they’ll find a bit extra. Those guys will be out to play big games.”
An unchanged line-up would see maligned forward Leon Davis hold his spot and veteran defender Simon Prestigiacomo miss out on the chance to win a premiership in what could be his final year.
O’Bree said a case could be made to play Prestigiacomo, who withdrew from last week’s game with groin soreness, but didn’t think he would make the final cut.
“He’s one of the great players I’ve been lucky enough to play with,” he said. “You do find a bit when you know he’s going to play on the best player.
“Whether he gets a game or not ... it’s going to be hard for either Browny [Nathan Brown] or Reidy [Ben Reid] to miss out because they both played such great games last week and really held their own in the dying stages.
“It will be very hard for Presti but I’d love to have him out there.”
O’Bree last played for the Pies in round 10 this year before coach Mick Malthouse relegated him to the reserves in favour of pushing through youth.
He said he wasn’t finding the finals series hard to handle and was simply keen to see his teammates do well.
“Obviously I’m jealous and I’d love to be out there playing but I knew I wasn’t a chance to be playing over the finals series,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to a few of them and they’re fit and raring to go so hopefully they can come away with a win.”
He predicted a close result on Saturday with the Magpies’ chances to come down to the output of the midfield, which was down on its usual form last week.
“We need a four-quarter effort this week. It was a game of two halves last week and Collingwood threw everything in the first half and then to St Kilda’s credit they stuck at it and nearly came away with a win,” he said.
“I couldn’t imagine any players on either side giving up at any stage. I was nervous watching last week - I couldn’t even imagine being a player out there.”
