Axed Collingwood forward Dan McStay gets outpouring of support after ‘brutal story’

The omission of Dan McStay from Collingwood’s qualifying final against Adelaide on Thursday has sparked an outpouring of support for the luckless Magpies forward.

As predicted by 7NEWS Melbourne’s Xander McGuire on Tuesday, Collingwood coach Craig McRae dropped McStay the next day for Mason Cox, who has not played since Round 19.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Collingwood recall Mason Cox as Dan McStay dropped.

Cox, who famously dragged the Pies over the line in a preliminary final against Richmond in 2018, has largely fallen out of favour in McRae’s side this year, playing just eight games.

“Mason Cox is shaping to make a sensational return to finals football — looking to come in for a sore Dan McStay,” McGuire said before the selection decision was confirmed.

“McStay trained, but it’s believed he’s carrying some shoulder soreness. Match committee today will make the final call.”

It’s a devastating blow for McStay, whose past four years have been punctuated by a string of heartbreaks.

In his final year at Brisbane in 2022, he played in the Lions’ heavy preliminary final defeat to eventual premiers Geelong.

The following year, the big left-footer injured his knee in Collingwood’s one-point preliminary final win over GWS, denying him a chance to play in the grand final against his old side, which the Magpies went on to win.

Months later, McStay tore his ACL in his first session of the 2024 pre-season and played just five games for the year.

In 2025, the 30-year-old has played 18 games and has largely been able to stay fit.

But with his sore shoulder and a lean run of form, the Magpies have turned to Cox for the crunch final instead, despite McStay having played the past 11 games in a row.

“Feel bad for McStay, nice start to the year but been very average for the last two months or so. But would hate for him to miss out on a potential flag again, sucks he didn’t get one in ‘23,” one Pies fan said.

“Dan McStay dropped from this side is actually INSANE. Not enough being made of it,” another added.

McStay appears to have recently made the decision to delete his Instagram account, which Pies fans were quick to notice.

It is understood McStay made this decision well before his non-selection for the first week of the finals.

“Every club has fans that are absolute arseholes, but damn Pies have our fair share,” one fan said.

“Dan McStay had to delete his social media because of the abuse he was getting. From our own fans. If you abused him personally you’re a disgrace to this club.”

Another fan said: “Dan McStay’s story is BRUTAL → Lost 2022 prelim final at Brisbane → Moves to Collingwood & does MCL in 2023 prelim, misses GF win. → Tore his ACL in first pre-season session 2024. → Dropped for 1st final in 2025 ..... We love you so much Dan.”

McStay’s omission was one of two changes made by McRae, who has also recalled Wil Parker to cover the loss of injured veteran Jeremy Howe.

Meantime, Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has recalled Max Michalanney and Luke Pedlar for the clash, with youngsters Sid Draper and Billy Dowling dropped.

Adelaide’s Michalanney has missed the past four games and Pedlar has been sidelined for the last two, both because of hamstring injuries.

Michalanney is renowned as Adelaide’s premier shutdown defender but has been training with the forwards in the lead-up to the Adelaide Oval encounter.

“We might have done that deliberately to take you guys off track, I guess you’ll find that out tomorrow night,” Nicks told reporters on Wednesday.

“But we know Max can play multiple roles.

“It’s one of the things we looked at this year, becoming a more flexible team, players becoming more flexible individually to play different roles that we might need at different times.

“So if he’s needed to go forward of the ball at any stage, we’re confident he can do a great job.

“And we understand what he’s done there for a longer period of time behind the ball.”

Nicks’s Crows finished top of the ladder to secure the club’s first finals appearance since losing the 2017 premiership decider.

Only seven Crows have finals experience ahead of a clash against finals-hardened Collingwood, who won the flag two years ago.

Nicks conceded that how his players would cope with the occasion was unknown.

“We understand emotion amps up, pressure amps up, in finals footy - that’s what we’ve got to be able to deal with,” he said.

“And we have been working to deal with that all year.

“We have played a number of huge games across the year ... our stadium packs out, so it won’t be necessarily a new environment, although there’ll be a lot more Collingwood supporters than were there the last game.

“That’s the challenging part: we don’t know, because we don’t have experience on that stage yet, at least not to the level of our opponents.

“But this is what we’ve done all our preparation for, is to be in this moment.”

Adelaide pipped Collingwood by three points on August 16 to break an 11-game winless streak against the Pies dating back to 2016.

That clash had a bitter fallout, with star Crows forward Izak Rankine banned for four games for directing a homophobic slur at a Collingwood player.

Rankine returned to Australia on Tuesday night and addressed his teammates before training on Wednesday.

“We’re focused on the footy, and have been as a group for the last week and a half,” Nicks said.

“We’re in a unique position, so is our opponent, that we played each other recently.

“There’s a lot of respect there for the way that last game played out.”

In the recent clash, the Crows prevailed despite losing the inside-50 count 37-71.

“They definitely dominated ... we’re probably losing nine out of 10 of those games when you look at it statistically,” Nicks said.

“But fortunately, you don’t actually get the result on just those stats, it’s about goals and points.

“The reality is, we’ve got to be better than we were last time.

“The inside-50 count that we had last time, we know that’s not going to hold up.”

- With AAP