Collingwood will be searching for a new centre-half forward in 2024 after Dan McStay went down with a ruptured ACL at training last week.
McStay missed last year’s premiership after injuring his MCL in his other knee in the Preliminary Final against GWS and will now likely miss the entirety of the next campaign with the ACL.
With Brody Mihocek a consistent feature up forward, all of McStay, Mason Cox, Billy Frampton and Ash Johnson filled the second-tall forward role at stages in 2023.
As first-choice McStay is now sidelined, Channel Nine’s Braden Ingram believes Johnson is the obvious choice to replace the former Lion.
Johnson has kicked 36 goals from his 24 AFL games so far and Ingram expects him to play more next season as he spoke to SEN Mornings from Collingwood’s pre-season training on Monday at Victoria Park.
“I think for me, the obvious one is Ash Johnson,” Ingram said on SEN Mornings.
“Obviously, he can pinch hit in the ruck as well.
“He's shown glimpses but couldn't get into that side when really the whips were cracking towards the end of the year.
“So, for me, he's the main one, but he's still got a bit of development to do.
“But I guess they know straight away in the pre-season that someone like him is going to be required.
“But we saw last year, obviously McStay plays a difficult position to fill, but Oleg Markov came onto the list really late and filled a role.
“Those SSP selections, they definitely open the door for plenty of guys who can come and train on.”
Before McStay went down, Collingwood already had three available list spots and five players are training at the club over the summer in hopes of winning one of those slots.
After observing training, Ingram thinks the early standout of that group could be former Port Adelaide ruckman Brynn Teakle.
He thinks adding another ruckman could give some comfort to Collingwood’s coaches knowing they have a lot of tall options.
“Brynn Teakle was the one who could stand out to me,” Ingram said.
“He's a bit more of a ruckman at 203 centimetres, but he was able to play the six games with Power throughout the year.
“I think that at least would fill them with a little bit of comfort.
“Even last year, we were talking about the crisis in the ruck, pretty much all of them were down and it was, ‘How are they going to make this work?’.
“Guys just stepped up and filled a role. But they've got options, which I guess is the point.
“There's probably no better side in terms of flexibility. Craig McRae certainly drilled that into his side.
“I think that's something that, Craig McRae has really fostered in the past few years and I'm sure we'll continue to see that this year as well.”
Collingwood begins their quest to go back-to-back with an Opening Round clash against GWS at GIANTS Stadium on Saturday, March 9.