Vice-Captain Ruby Schleicher will be tested ahead of the match against the Blues after missing the first six Rounds of the season with a foot injury.
Fellow Vice-Captain Brittany Bonnici will also be tested after injuring her ribs in last week’s win over Brisbane.
Charlotte Taylor will also be tested as she recovers from a knee injury, looking to play her first game of the 2023 season.
Tall Imogen Barnett is recovering well from her ankle injury and will be sidelined for a further four to six weeks.
Stacey Livingstone and Selena Karlson will both miss the clash through suspension after receiving one-match sanctions against the Lions.
Having just conceded a goal that gave Brisbane a narrow lead with little more than five minutes left, the Pies needed to make something happen to win the game.
With a signal from the bench, Daicos was ready to assume his position in the forward fifty.
Well, that was until Scott Pendlebury had a change of heart.
“Nick was walking out of that at the centre bounce to swap with another player and Pendles goes ‘where are you going’ and he goes ‘well I go and play this role [later on] so I’ll go and play that’”, Collingwood High Performance Manager Jarrod Wade recalls.
“Pendles just had a conversation with him and just said ‘mate do you want to be part of this?’”
So, after taking his place at a centre bounce that he initially didn’t think he would be a part of, Daicos had to switch on.
In the midfield with Pendlebury and Jordan De Goey, the Pies’ star midfielders were left to get to work.
First, it is Daicos who wins the initial clearance with quick hands to his former captain, before following Pendlebury’s inside fifty with an unforgettable midair handball to De Goey who regains the lead.
They’re split-second moments, but moments that very nearly didn’t happen.
And if not for Pendlebury’s nous, whose last quarter will go down in Collingwood history, the outcome could’ve been very different.
