The tag is not so clear

Against Gold Coast, there was more chance of an AFL round going by without a rule interpretation being put under the microscope than Ryan Crowley not tagging Gary Ablett Jnr. But Collingwood and its star-studded midfield offers the Freo stopper a buffet of options. The Magpies’ best performer this season has been the sublimely talented Scott Pendlebury, butBrownlow Medallist Dane Swan cannot be ignored. Then there’s Steele Sidebottom, who St Kilda showed great respect to last week by assigning a hard tag on. Dayne Beams is another superstar who would have been an option, but he is unavailable because of injury.

The real test

Fremantle gained many plaudits for its efforts in beating the Gold Coast without stars Matthew Pavlich, Aaron Sandilands, Stephen Hill and Nat Fyfe. No disrespect to the up and coming Suns, but a battle-hardened Collingwood outfit that has played in two of the past three grand finals presents Freo with a far greater challenge to overcome without a host of talent. Stephen Hill is the only one out of that group who is a chance to return.

Covering Cloke

Collingwood casts no illusions as to its tactics entering the attacking 50. It seeks out Travis Cloke at every opportunity. The man-mountain has clearly been the most targeted player inside 50 in the AFLthis season. He also tops the league for contested marks with 16 (equal with Nick Riewoldt). The job of covering Cloke will go to either Luke McPharlin or Zac Dawson, although the stand-in captain seems more likely to get the gig.

Frequent flyer balances

Fremantle’s players have been racking up the frequent flyer points lately, with the club’s past two away games being in Tasmania and the Gold Coast.
Collingwood’s points balances would be fairly low, however, considering Saturday’s match will be the first time the Pies leave Victoria this season.

The Clarke dilemma

Ideally, Fremantle would like to play Zac Clarke in the WAFL this week to build his match fitness. But the state game between WA and Victoria means the only options at Ross Lyon’s disposal is to play the ruckman/forward in the AFL side or have him not play at all this weekend. Decisions, decisions.