‘Mature’ Pies delight McRae with Brisbane demolition
Jim Morton |
Two seasons on from their AFL premiership, Collingwood coach Craig McRae believes his 2025 side is a different, “more mature” version.
As happy as he was by the Magpies’ Easter Thursday demolition of Brisbane at the Gabba, McRae isn’t making any comparisons to his class of 2023.
Even though they ran out with 19 from that grand final side which defeated Brisbane by four points, he feels they are a new outfit and handling the big moments even better than when they were hailed as the close-finish kings.
“This is a different team,” McRae said.
“Funnily enough, at the end, I had Bobby Hill sitting next to me and he said ‘oh geez, we’re maturing’.
“Don’t laugh at that because the age is clearly real but I do feel like as a team we have matured. We’re managing moments better than once we did.
“This version of us is a nice version and will stay here for now.”
After being thumped by GWS Giants in the opening round, and been pilloried as too old, Collingwood have made the critics eat their words with five straight wins to top the table as they look forward to an Anzac Day-clash with Essendon.
The 52-point thrashing of the Lions was the most impressive of the lot and underlined them as premiership threats once again.
Nick (38 disposals) and Josh Daicos (30) were the two best on ground, and Lions coach Chris Fagan bemoaned the fact nothing they tried could nullify Nick.
McRae said: “They’re remarkable players.
“They had 68 touches between but it’s more the metres gained — it was 1000m gained (combined).”
Also pleasing to McRae was the ability of star midfielder Jordan De Goey to run out the game strongly, including two last-quarter goals, despite his Achilles troubles which is hampering his training time.
“I felt he got better as the game went on,” he said.
“He’s an important player to us and we’ve got an eye on the bigger picture for Jordie.
“We’re hopeful he trains all week this week and gets on a roll but we’re also aware he might miss in the next few weeks.”
Fagan labelled the Lions’ first defeat of the season, which ended a 10-game streak, a “shocker” but cut them some slack due to back-to-back interstate trips and a five-day turnaround since overwhelming the Western Bulldogs in the Adelaide heat.
He admitted Collingwood were far more desperate and energetic.
“It was a lacklustre performance which is uncommon for us,” he said.
“We’ve just got to cop it on the chin and learn from it. It probably won’t hurt us.”
AAP
