CTV > Watch the final training session and Josh Fraser press conferenceAAMI Stadium holds no fears for Collingwood according to Pie ruckman Josh Fraser who says his side is primed for its sudden-death clash against the Adelaide Crows on Saturday.
"To go over there with our backs to the wall sort of stuff with a fair bit at stake; it's an exciting challenge for us," Fraser said from the Lexus Centre on Wednesday.
"We travel pretty well as a side, we always have since I've been at the club; we travel with a fair bit of confidence. It adds to the challenge to go over to Adelaide and play a quality side in front of their home crowd.
"I don't think we'll be over-awed by it, we look forward to traveling and we've got a group that gels together pretty well on the road, so we've got a good record. It's probably just as exciting as playing in front of 80,000 at the 'G."
Adelaide's youthful ruck tandem of Ivan Maric and Kurt Tippett is largely unheralded outside South Australia, but Fraser isn't going into the game underestimating his opponents.
"Experience counts for a little bit, but I watched them pretty closely on the weekend and Maric was probably one of their better players, and Tippett gives him some good support," he said.
"I don't see it as a weakness in their side. In fact I think when those boys are up and running, they give those onballers good usage and we're going to have to be at our best to quell their influence."
Winged Crow Jason Porplyzia is likely to play despite a shoulder that becomes dislocated on a regular basis, but Fraser said he would receive no special attention.
"I don't think you'll see anyone target him specifically, but if there's a ball there to be won our blokes will be going to win the footy," he said.
"I wouldn't imagine he would be targeted; since Mick's been at the club we've never targeted guys with injuries."
Fraser denied the long trip back from Perth after last week's loss to Fremantle would hamper the side's preparation for the elimination final and said there was no lingering disappointment at having spurned an opportunity to finish in the top four.
"We put everything out of our control when we got done on Friday night, so it was almost a case of let's get to the end of Sunday and focus in on who we're playing and what we need to do," he said.
"It was a pretty quick adjustment, I mean you obviously watch the other games with interest, but we knew we were in finals and we get another opportunity to prove ourselves this week."
The Pies are sweating on the availability of important trio Scott Burns, Dale Thomas and Shane Wakelin for the clash with the latter pair training well on Wednesday and the skipper winning his battle against a corked calf.
