Collingwood rests aging stars Pendlebury, De Goey for Fremantle clash

In the long game of a football season, Collingwood's coach Craig McRae has chosen preservation over presence, resting four experienced players — Scott Pendlebury, Jordan De Goey, Brody Mihocek, and Brayden Maynard — ahead of Thursday's clash with Fremantle in Perth. The decision, made in the wake of a heartbreaking last-kick loss to Geelong, reflects a quiet truth about aging bodies and long seasons: sometimes the wisest move is to step back. A five-day turnaround and a cross-country journey became, in McRae's reckoning, an opportunity to restore rather than deplete.