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FLASH: I want to leave, Collingwood’s star insists says his contract should be terminated.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae insists now-Hawk Jack Ginnivan wasn’t unwanted by the Magpies as they prepare to meet for the first time since his trade to Hawthorn.
The Pies are also anticipating Finn Maginness to resume his tagging role on Nick Daicos at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
Premiership forward Ginnivan, 21, this week talked through his disappointing departure from Collingwood, saying he knew it was time to leave after his exit meeting with McRae last year.
McRae said he hadn’t heard or read his comments, but dismissed the suggestion Ginnivan potentially didn’t feel wanted.
“That’s his, maybe, recollection of it. He was definitely wanted,” McRae said on Friday.
“We love Jack. We still do. He’s a premiership player, and he’s always welcome at our club.
“We’ll celebrate Jack whenever we have a reunion. He will always be a Collingwood player. We love Jack.”
Ginnivan expressed his disappointment at no Collingwood players or coaches reaching out to him to say they wanted him to stay before his trade went through.
“I do recall that. That was such a short period, to be honest,” McRae said.
“Graham Wright and I were made aware that this (the trade) was happening at short notice and it happened really quickly.
“So there was probably 12 hours of limbo and if that’s a time that maybe others wouldn’t have had awareness of what was going on, that could’ve explained it.”
The small forward has also been in the spotlight, with the AFL conceding umpires missed some potential free kicks Ginnivan should have received against Geelong on Easter Monday.
“I hope he doesn’t get any free kicks this week, because he never got them playing for us,” McRae said jokingly.
Maginness applied a hard tag to Daicos in round 21 last year and kept him to five touches before the Magpie suffered a hairline fracture to his knee from a knock in the second term.
McRae expects the tagger, brought back into the Hawthorn side as one of four changes this week, to reprise that role.
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” he said.
When asked how to protect Daicos, McRae quipped: “Maybe not getting kneed in the leg would help, wouldn’t it?
“It’s a difficult thing to go into a game to protect somebody.
But we certainly have plans around playing somebody on Nick at training to get him some awareness of that and then have some scenarios around planning for it.”
Daicos returned to half-back with success against the Brisbane Lions last week and could again start there against the Hawks to avoid a tag.
“There’s one thing – if you tag somebody, you literally have to give up a lot,” McRae said.
“You do, because Nick can play everywhere.”
Veteran wingman Steele Sidebottom was rested for last week’s win over Brisbane but returns for Collingwood in place of Finlay Macrae.
Hawthorn have named Maginness, Seamus Mitchell, Max Ramsden and Sam Butler to replace Luke Breust, Mitchell Lewis, Nick Watson (all injured) and Harry Morrison (omitted).
