COLLINGWOOD could heap more responsibility on Alex Fasolo in its quest to kick a winning score against Greater Western Sydney as it travels to Spotless Stadium for Saturday's clash with a depleted forward line.
The Magpies will be without injured goalkickers Travis Cloke (ankle), Ben Reid (hamstring) and Jamie Elliot (hamstring) against the Giants, in a match they must win to keep their slim finals hopes alive.
Fasolo, who kicked four goals against St Kilda in round 11 but has kicked just one goal in four games since, trained out of the goalsquare in a light session at the Westpac Centre on Friday.
The 22-year-old has been used at both ends of the ground this season, missing a total of five games because of a foot injury and also spending time in the VFL to regain form and fitness.
He could be the player coach Nathan Buckley turns to against a nimble GWS team that overcame its own injury setbacks to beat Melbourne by 64 points last Sunday.
"They were pretty good, weren't they," Magpie Tony Armstrong said on Friday.
"We've spent a fair bit of time on them and we know we're going to need to bring almost our best to beat them.
"It's always a big test when you lose blokes of that calibre (Cloke, Reid and Elliot), but we back in the guys who we've got forward.
"We know that if we use the ball well and give them every chance, we're fully confident they'll be able to kick us a winning score."
Six days after playing eight quarters of football as the Magpies scrambled to cover late injuries to Elliot and captain Scott Pendlebury against the Brisbane Lions, Armstrong said he was ready to face the Giants.
"It was a nice light week ... I did a lot more recovery-based stuff and just tried to get my legs going," he said.
"You actually do have to do a little bit, otherwise you can't back up, so I had a bit of a blowout, then nothing, then a bit of a blowout yesterday as well."
As for any suggestion that he might miss this week: "I wasn't going to hear a bar of that".
Armstrong has played the last three games for the Magpies after spending the season in the VFL as both a running defender and a half forward.
He said there were positives to take out of the second half of his first season at the Westpac Centre after crossing from the Sydney Swans.
"It's been OK, I've been in pretty good form the last 12 weeks or so and I think I've played alright when I've come in," he said.
"I've been using the ball pretty well and I've defended pretty well, so I've just got to keep doing that.
"You've got to use the ball well to play well, so the coaches put a big emphasis on it."
Pendlebury moved well at Friday's session and will travel to Sydney after being named to return from a one-week quad injury that flared after he was struck with a ball in the warm up last week.
The Magpies will need to beat the Giants as well as Hawthorn in round 23 then hope other results fall their way to make the finals, but Armstrong said there was still belief in the group.
"Of course, you have to [believe]," he said.
"We believe our best footy is good enough and the only way we can go about it is by doing our best each week."
