Scharenberg a chance for Pies recall

Matthew Scharenberg’s hot VFL form could see him return to the Collingwood line-up for the first time in over a year in place of the injured James Aish.

Scharenberg collected 41 disposals against undefeated Box Hill last Saturday to press his claims for a return to the AFL against Brisbane on Sunday at the MCG.

The 21-year-old hasn’t played on the big stage since the final round of 2015, missing all of 2016 after having a knee reconstruction.

Aish is out for about a month after having surgery on a fractured cheekbone.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley was impressed by Scharenberg, who played on the wing as well as in the back half in the Magpies’ VFL side.

He said Scharenberg would get an opportunity, but was coy on whether it would be this week.

“Shaz (Scharenberg) has put a really good block of VFL form together and he’s clearly getting a lot of the footy,” Buckley said.

“All he can continue to do is play the role that’s expected of him.”

Against Hawthorn last Saturday the Magpies produced their lowest first-quarter of scoring under Buckley, kicking just a solitary point and conceding six goals.

The Magpies rebounded to register an 18-point win.

Buckley said their offence had been steadily improving, however he wanted more consistency.

“We feel like our front-half offence is improving,” he said.

“We’ve worked hard at our connection going inside forward 50 and our accuracy has improved slightly over the last month.

“We still haven’t scored heavily but we’re still getting pretty good supply and making better use of it.”

Sitting 13th on the ladder with a 3-6 win-loss record, Buckley felt the heavy expectation on the powerhouse club meant they were judged fairly harshly.

“People are forgetting we’ve played some pretty good footy through the first nine weeks of the year; it hasn’t been all bad,” he said.

“It seems to be lumped that it’s either really poor or really good but the fact is it’s always somewhere in between.”

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