COLLINGWOOD has bolstered its ruck stocks for the 2023 season by signing South Australian Oscar Steene.
The 201cm teen has been training with the Magpies since November during the pre-season supplemental selection period and has impressed the club enough to earn a rookie deal.
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Following the departure of Brodie Grundy to Melbourne, the 19-year-old from West Adelaide will provide ruck support to Mason Cox, Darcy Cameron and Aiden Begg this season.
"Oscar filled a position of need and has fitted into our environment seamlessly," Collingwood General Manager of Football Graham Wright said.
"He has shown a good ability to learn and improve his craft, and his self-development is getting better day-by-day.
"We believe Oscar could play a key role in our AFL program this year and into the future."
Collingwood's ruck set-up will be a point of intrigue this season after Grundy was traded to Melbourne last October.
With Grundy sidelined for most of 2022 due to injury, Cox played 18 games to reignite his career, partnering Cameron in the ruck across the second half of the season.
Begg played the first three games after Grundy injured his PCL but didn't feature again.
Steene spent the bulk of 2022 playing for West Adelaide's reserves but did manage four senior SANFL games, averaging 10 disposals and three marks.
He was invited to the SA draft combine late last year but was overlooked on draft night.
Steene is the 10th player to be signed as an SSP selection this off-season; Adelaide (Tyler Brown and Mark Keane), Brisbane (Darragh Joyce and Conor McKenna) and Gold Coast (Jed Anderson and Brodie McLaughlin) have signed two players via SSP rules, while North Melbourne (Liam Shiels), St Kilda (Liam Stocker) and the Western Bulldogs (Oskar Baker) have signed one player each.
The SSP period ends on February 15.
Players signed during the SSP (Dec 5 to Feb 15)
Conor McKenna - Brisbane
Oskar Baker - Western Bulldogs
Liam Shiels - North Melbourne
Jed Anderson - Gold Coast
Tyler Brown - Adelaide
Liam Stocker - St Kilda
Mark Keane - Adelaide
Darragh Joyce - Brisbane
Brodie McLaughlin - Gold Coast
Oscar Steene - Collingwood
