COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse said hisside took a punt on playing star forward Anthony Rocca against
After Rocca booted five second-half goals –including four in the final term – to lead his team to a 24-point win over theBlues, he must have been happy his club took the risk.
While not detailing Rocca's injurycomplaint, Malthouse said it was touch and go as to whether or not the powerforward would take his place in the side.
"We had a lot of players that wereally took a risk on and we ended up having to leave three out.
"Anthony was just an absoluteminiscule off not playing, so it was a credit to him that he actually did play."
Collingwood struggled to win the clearancesthroughout the match – especially early in the contest – as the Blues reveledin the atmosphere of one of football's oldest rivalries.
Injury concerns meant the coaching staffhad to compromise in the face of adversity, but Malthouse was proud his teamwas able to overcome an improving
He was forced to reshuffle his line-up onmatch day when midfielder Shane O'Bree (knee) was a late omission, coming ontop of the withdrawals of Guy Richards (gastro) and Shane Wakelin (back).
O'Bree's loss compounded last week's injuryto emerging star Scott Pendlebury.
"I thought we got our hands to it on alot of occasions, but you take away Pendlebury and O'Bree, who average aroundabout 40-odd possessions between them, and the dynamics of the side changes,"Malthouse said.
"We lost Shane this morning, so we hadto compromise.
"We had to pluck players from all overthe place and see whether we could actually get something going."
The veteran coach refused to be drawn intothe coaching debate or the prospects of his Blues' caretaker coach BrettRatten, however he does believe
"
