Jamie Elliott was 'stiff' to miss out on selection this week but remains a chance to line up for Collingwood against Port Adelaide in the Second Elimination Final, according to Magpies assistant Matthew Lappin.
The small forward has missed the last two matches due to a hamstring complaint and veteran Alan Didak has taken full advantage by playing two of his four games for the year in that time to retain his spot for the cut-throat final against the Power.
Elliott has been Collingwood's small forward of choice for much of the season, booting 30 goals from 19 games and averaging a healthy four tackles per match.
But the 21-year-old has been named as an emergency and may receive a late call-up.
"We've still got a (training) session with some guys with some question marks over them so Jamie's got to get through the session today," Lappin said.
"He's had a really good season but at the moment it's kind of like a squad of 25 so our side is not finalised."
Lappin said Didak is 'hungry' and has brought energy and enthusiasm to the side which his team-mates have fed off.
"He's had to work hard to get back in," Lappin said of Didak.
"Some of his offensive work has been really handy for us and the crowd goes berserk when he gets on the field and you can't deny that's a bit of a lifter for our players as well."
The last time these two sides met, Port Adelaide smacked Collingwood by six goals and Lappin suggested that result played a significant part in the Magpies' late-season resurgence which saw them win six of their last nine games.
"It took three or four weeks after that for us to really start to click and then we played Essendon and Sydney (who they beat by 79 and 29 points respectively) and a few of the other teams and we got a little bit of momentum out of that and some belief in what we were doing," Lappin said.
"We made some structural changes like Ben Reid going forward, Lachie Keeffe coming in down back and it's just changed the dynamic a little bit and it's given us some real momentum going into the finals."
Port Adelaide are one of the best running sides in the competition and Lappin admitted Collingwood would have to curtail that if the Magpies wanted to progress to the second week of the finals.
Lappin hoped his team's contested footy and tall forwards would prove too much for Port Adelaide as well.
"Our best footy stands up against the best sides, we've been contesting really well around the ball, our defensive numbers have stacked up really well this season, particularly after the first five or six rounds of the year and I think we're a lot more dangerous in attack with both Reid and (Travis) Cloke as viable options for us," Lappin said.