Running midfielder Tom Scully will make his return to the GIANTS’ line-up for Saturday afternoon’s clash with Collingwood at the MCG.

The 26-year-old replaces defender Aidan Corr in the 22 that thrashed the Western Bulldogs at UNSW Canberra Oval last Sunday.

Despite telling media on Wednesday that Scully would have a difficult time breaking into the side that beat the Bulldogs by 82 points, coach Leon Cameron has found space for the zippy wingman who missed the season opener with knee soreness.

“He’s had a good two-and-a-half, three weeks of training,” Cameron said. 

“He trained really well on Wednesday and we feel as though he’s prepared himself enough to play and contribute at AFL level this week. 

“We look forward to having him back, he’s been a very good contributor to our footy club over the last six years and we look forward to kicking off his 2018 campaign this week.”

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Cameron said while it made sense to bring Scully back into the line-up, it wasn’t easy omitting defender Aidan Corr.

“He’s come off the back of an interrupted pre-season so there’s no doubt there’s some areas of his game he wants to work on but I’m pretty sure he’ll be pushing his way back into the AFL side very shortly,” he said.

“It was tough to make a change, Aidan could probably count himself a bit unlucky.”

The GIANTS have already played Collingwood in 2018, beating them in a JLT Series game at UNSW Canberra Oval by 60-points earlier this month.

Collingwood lost to Hawthorn by 34 points in round one, but Cameron said the GIANTS are expecting the Magpies to put up a fight at their home ground.

“We have great clashes with Collingwood, they’ve been really hard to beat, and we’ve only beaten them once,” he said.

“There’s no doubt they’ll be really keen to bounce back. We appreciate that the match-ups that they have against us and we have against them are very similar and that’s probably why the games go down to a goal or two each way normally and this weekend will be no different.” 

Collingwood v GIANTS

Saturday, March 31 at 4:35pm
MCG

GIANTS

FB: Phil Davis, Nick Haynes, Heath Shaw
HB: Brett Deledio, Jeremy Finlayson, Tim Taranto
C: Lachie Whitfield, Dylan Shiel, Harry Himmelberg
HF: Matt de Boer, Jon Patton, Josh Kelly
FF: Callan Ward, Jeremy Cameron, Sam Reid
R: Rory Lobb, Stephen Coniglio, Daniel Lloyd

Interchange: Toby Greene, Tom Scully, Zac Langdon, Adam Tomlinson

Emergencies: Jacob Hopper, Lachie Keeffe, Dawson Simpson, Aidan Corr