The highly-touted pair were part of a 29-man squad to travel to Subiaco but, to the surprise of many, didn’t get a run as the Magpies fielded a close to full-strength line-up.
The decision reaped rewards as the side, coached by assistant Mark Neeld as senior coach Mick Malthouse took a back-seat role, whacked the Eagles by 62 points.
But Paul Hudson, who has joined the Pies as an assistant from the Brisbane Lions this season, says Collingwood might tamper with its line-up in coming weeks.
And Sidebottom and Beams, who impressed in recent trial matches, would figure in calculations when selecting the team for the Pies’ round two NAB Cup opponent.
“We thought, to be fair on all the first-year players, [that it’d be best] not to play them,” Hudson said of the young draftees’ omissions.
“Their chance could come in round two.
“We’ve got to go and have a look at the list and see how the guys are travelling because we’ve already got to look at adding and deleting guys from the squad.
“How we do that, we don’t know, we haven’t had a discussion as such … it [the squad] could be totally different come round two.”
What fans – and opposition clubs – will be watching closely in the Pies’ second NAB Cup fixture will be the Collingwood gameplan.
Against West Coast, Malthouse’s side touched the footy more than 400 times – a high number for a Collingwood team and one more like the dominant Geelong racked up with regularity in 2007 and 2008.
While the convincing nature of the win no doubt attributed to the Pies’ possession rate, Hudson was coy when asked whether it signalled a change in tactic at the Lexus Centre.
“Maybe have a look at round two [of the NAB Cup] and compare,” he said.
“I wasn’t privy to Collingwood’s game plan last year but not much has changed.”
Hudson, speaking from the club’s Telstra AFL Community Camp on the Mornington Peninsula, admitted the Pies had used the ball more by hand against West Coast but said they were simply making better choices.
“Our decision-making’s got better. We’re encouraging them to use either foot or hand in certain situations but there’s no real difference in the way the club’s going about it.”
While Neeld took prime position in the coaches’ box against the Eagles, it will be Hudson’s turn when the Magpies face either Richmond or Fremantle – depending on the outcome of this Sunday’s clash at Subiaco – at Telstra Dome on February 28.
