'I find it extremely frustrating': Pies coach reignites calls for change to ...

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has passionately renewed calls for the AFL to give clubs the ability to name their full selected team of 23 by Thursday night.

McRae has said the impact of the “ridicule” that players receive for being dropped in the lead-up to a match, only to then be named as the starting sub on game day, was affecting them adversely.

The Magpies experienced a similar scenario this week when they left star midfielder Tom Mitchell out of the 22 on Thursday night in order to manage his workloads, before confirming him as their 23rd man on Saturday against Fremantle.

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MORE: Scott joins coaching chorus in support of move to 23-man squads

“Beau McCreery a few weeks ago didn’t train all week, we thought, ‘Oh, that’s two weeks in a row coming off an ankle’. So we didn’t want him out of the team, so we play him as a sub,” McRae said after his team’s 46-point win over the Dockers.

“This week was the same with Tom Mitchell. He’s had a heavy training load, he hasn’t missed many sessions, and we’re sort of thinking, ‘We’re just teetering on the red line, we need to look after this guy’.

“But again, we don’t want him out of the team, so he played sub.

“The naming of the 22 and not the sub is really difficult because then we communicate that he’s omitted. He’s not omitted, and he’s not injured, well what is he? And he’s not managed, so we’re left holding this can of like, what is he?

“And then he’s out, but he’s in. I find it extremely frustrating that we have to communicate that to the broader AFL, or whoever else, even the players.

“We’re protecting the players from the ridicule of, ‘You’re omitted’. How do you omit Tom Mitchell? How do you omit Beau McCreery? It’s a frustration from our end.”

Essendon coach Brad Scott, and former AFL football operations boss, said earlier this year that the league was loath to allow teams to name 23s from a legal perspective as it would require the rules of the sport to be re-written as a 23-man game.

“The perfect solution in the short-term, if that’s the case, would be to go – out, sub,” McRae said.

“Because you’ve got to name them out. Well he’s out and he will be the sub.”

The Magpies blew the Dockers out of the water with a sensational 10-goal second quarter and McRae said that was as close to the perfect quarter of football that his team was capable of producing.

“That’s probably as close to what our DNA looks like in all facets of the game,” he said.

“The ability for us to put our foot down when we want to - we did it last week against the Bulldogs – we played some really good brand of footy that we want to play.

“It was exciting. We want to be exciting to watch and hard to play against.”

Brownlow favourite Nick Daicos starred again in the midfield and combined with Jordan De Goey in devastating fashion, and McRae dared to dream about what kind of impact they could have together in the coming years in that part of the ground.

“It’s exciting to think what that chemistry could be over the short, medium and long term,” McRae said.

“Pretty damaging couple of players.”

Star defender Brayden Maynard appeared to reaggravate his troublesome shoulder early in the game, but McRae was confident he would be able to manage the issue for the remainder of the year “unless it gets worse”.

McRae was also confident that Brody Mihocek (hamstring) and Darcy Cameron would be fit to be recalled for the most anticipated match of the season against Port Adelaide next weekend.