Mick has faith in Fraser
12/07/2008 7:42 PM
Josh Fraser's place at the top of the club's ruck pecking order has been reaffirmed by senior coach Mick Malthouse in the wake of Fraser's 'demotion' to the VFL this weekend.
Malthouse said Fraser was in desperate need of game time after missing the past two matches because of a knee injury he picked up while playing for Victoria in May's Hall of Fame Tribute match.
"Josh is not able to play senior football right now as a ruckman because of his injury," Malthouse told his media conference after Collingwood's 32-point win over Adelaide at the MCG on Saturday.
"There's two options - keep him back and keep training him up to get right, or to get him to run around in the seconds to get match fitness and partake not at any stage in any ruck work that's going to pull back the progress that he's made with his knee."
"So Josh, over the next two or three weeks that knee injury will improve dramatically, his fitness will improve dramatically because he will now play again … but not in the ruck."
"When he's comfortable and confident and when he's got his knee strength right, he'll come into the side."
Malthouse said that when Fraser comes good, either Cameron Wood or Chris Bryan, would be dropped to make way.
After initially describing the pair's efforts in the ruck against Adelaide as 'highly competitive', he later downgraded that assessment to 'patchy'.