Cameron Mooney and Campbell Brown say serious injuries to star Collingwood small forwards Alex Fasolo and Jamie Elliott give the out-of-favour Chris Mayne a chance to revitalise his career.
Fasolo will miss eight weeks of pre-season after requiring surgery for a shoulder injury, while Elliott is in a battle to be fit for the season opener after undergoing an ankle operation.
29-year-old Mayne played just three games in his debut season at Collingwood, and struggled to justify his multi-year contract, but the premiership winning duo said now is a perfect chance to deliver on the investment.
“Absolutely it is. You just hope he can grab it [the chance] with both hands. It’s a huge opportunity for Mayne,” Mooney said on SEN.
“Maybe this is the year that Chris Mayne earns his money,” Brown said on SEN Breakfast.
“He’s the sort of guy that you could look at and say ‘no Elliott and no Fasolo, Mayne that hybrid forward that can come out of the goal square, that’s a good tackling pressure player’. Maybe this is the year.”
The Pies have already signalled their intention to play Darcy Moore in defence in 2018, despite playing all of his career as a forward, and Mooney hopes they stick to their plan.
“I hope they keep [Darcy] Moore back. I’ve wanted Darcy Moore to go back for a while,” he said.
“I think it’s the best way for a young man to learn sometimes to play as a forward.
“Ben Reid might just have to put his hand up and play in that forward role. I really hope Collingwood stick with what they planned on doing with Darcy Moore and play him down back in 2018.”
He expects Fasolo to do plenty of running in order to keep his fitness in good condition.
“You get still get some really strong running in, it’s just the contact side of things that you really miss out on,” Mooney said.
“He might not have that pure match fitness because you can obviously only get that when you’re playing games, but fitness wise he should be quite strong.”