Collingwood coach Craig McRae insists Father Time isn’t catching up with Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury amid a 0-3 start to their AFL premiership defence.

But he won’t rule out resting his veterans, or using one as the substitute, in Thursday’s crunch grand final rematch against the Brisbane Lions.

Heat has come on 36-year-old Pendlebury and 33-year-old Sidebottom amid slow starts, but McRae backed the pair to deliver as the season wore on and games became more of a grind.

The Nightly columnist Leigh Matthews was the first to raise the pair’s dip in form and question if they were getting too old for the rigorous demands of AFL football.

“Physically everyone at the start of the year is at their absolute optimum. And that’s real and we are very conscious of that, that the game’s really high transitional early in the season,” McRae said.

“But June, middle of June and wet, a little bit slow, experience is really important.

“So we’ve got to be careful of what we see now and what’s potentially coming.

“But no, I think in those two in particular, we look for things that we can measure.

“And most of them are doing PBs, in the gym, out there for GPS, high speed, all the things we can look at to see that they are at the top of their game, those things are real, right in front of us.”

Collingwood’s involvement in Opening Round meant they played three games between March 9 and 21.

“There’s always a challenge of playing three games in 12 days. I don’t care how old you are, that’s a challenge,” McRae said.

The coach noted he’d managed fellow veterans Will Hoskin-Elliott and Tom Mitchell and said “time would tell” whether he repeated that approach.

Asked if Sidebottom would face Brisbane, McRae said: “I would hope to think so. He’s fit and available.

“We’ll go to the match committee and he’s one of those that we talk about, that three games in 12 days might be a chance to give him a rest, or we’ll see what happens.”

He said Collingwood would “manage everyone individually” regarding whether players spent time in the VFL or were allowed to find form at senior level.

“We’re very honest internally. Things need to get busy for a couple. The whole footy world knows that,” McRae said.

“But we like to be loyal and back people in and allow them to go and make amends or show us what you got and believe in people.”

He conceded captain Darcy Moore was “a little bit off”, but said he and his teammates were driven to improve.

Thursday night’s clash at the Gabba will be high stakes for both grand finalists, with Brisbane sitting at 0-2.

“There’s a lot of good players in both teams that are looking to make amends, I’m sure,” McRae said.

He wouldn’t be drawn on whether he would shift Nick Daicos to half-back, or if Billy Frampton would reprise his tagging role on gun Brisbane defender Harris Andrews.