Collingwood has announced that draftee Ollie Henry will make his debut in Friday night's season-opening clash against the Western Bulldogs.

The Magpies confirmed the news in a social media post showing coach Nathan Buckley announcing it to the players.

“Obviously something you’ve dreamed of but you’ve got your opportunity,” Buckley said.

“We’re backing you because we think you can make us better… we just want you to play with enjoyment, bring your strengths to the table and let the rest work itself out."

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Henry was drafted to the club out of the Geelong Falcons with their first pick, the No. 17 selection overall, in last year's draft.

The young forward impressed the club coaching coaching staff over the pre-season, playing in both the scratch match against Geelong and AAMi Community Series clash against Richmond.

He played in the club's preferred A side during a 18-versus-18 match simulation at training on Tuesday morning.

Jack Madgen, Callum Brown, Brayden Sier, Josh Thomas, Trey Ruscoe and Darcy Cameron featured in the B side, with Buckley not revealing how many ruckmen the club would play alongside Brodie Grundy.

In other selection news at the Pies, vice-captain Steele Sidebottom will miss with a calf strain, while star onballer Taylor Adams has overcome a hamstring issue and will line-up.

Chris Mayne will play in the VFL practice match after missing both pre-season matches due to concussion.

Buckley, who is out of contract at season's end, told reporters on Tuesday that the matchup against ex-Magpie Treloar wouldn't be used as motivation.

He admits that the communication could have been handled better throughout the trade period.

"I understand the animosity that has been built largely externally about it and yeah, we could've handled that Trade Period better," Buckley said.

"We could've handled it better, but it wouldn't have changed what we needed to do so the decisions we made might not have been executed right but they were the ones we knew we needed to make," Buckley said. "That was then.

"I think 'Ads' is a fantastic footballer and he'll continue on his career and I wish him all the best but if he plays this week, I hope he doesn't get a touch. We want to challenge the Bulldogs and take the game away from them.

"Communication is probably the main one (that could've been better) … potentially being a little clearer in initial conversations.

"But we had no control on the leaking to media or anything like that and unfortunately that was part of what we had to deal with in return."

Collingwood host the Western Bulldogs at the MCG on Friday night at 7.50pm AEDT.