Magpies fans turn out for Ball - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Magpies fans turn out for Ball

22/09/2010 01:57:56 PM Comments (0)

Midfielder Luke Ball has erased fears about his fitness for Saturday's AFL grand final, training fully with his Collingwood teammates on Wednesday.

Ball, who picked up a hamstring injury in the Magpies' preliminary final win over Geelong last weekend, completed the hour-long session at their Gosch's Paddock home base in Melbourne without any problems.

A final decision on his fitness will be made before the grand final teams are named on Thursday.

If Ball is declared fit, he would be pitted against his old club St Kilda in the premiership decider at the MCG.

Magpies assistant coach Mark Neeld said Ball had done all he was asked during the session and the club remained bullish the hamstring problem was just a case of cramp - as they had previously believed.

"He did everything we wanted him to do," Neeld said after training.

"He did every activity we did so that's a real positive. We'll train again on Friday as per normal ... and that's all Bally will have to do.

"The report we got straight away (when he was injured during the game) was that it was just a cramp, and that's what we've been running with.

"It was treated as such, and that's the reason we've been bullish. We've had no reason to be otherwise."

Exciting forward Leon Davis also trained well to raise hopes of a recall to the grand final side, after he was a late withdrawal from the preliminary final with hamstring tightness.

An estimated 10,000 fans created a carnival atmosphere at Gosch's Paddock as they turned out to cheer on the Magpies, giving the players rousing applause as they took the field to train and again as they left following the session.

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