McRae wants changes to Brownlow, Collingwood voting

Roger Vaughan | October 8, 2025

Craig McRae has doubled down on his “16 possessions” comment, saying he’d like improvements to the AFL’s Brownlow voting and Collingwood’s best-and-fairest format.

The Magpie coach raised eyebrows last week at the club’s awards night as he congratulated star midfielder Nick Daicos on his season.

“He came runner-up in the Brownlow Medal again. Maybe a few more 16-disposal games might get you there next year, Nick,” McRae said.

“That’s cheeky ‘Fly’ coming out.”

On Wednesday, McRae said his comment was not a swipe at Gold Coast midfielder Matt Rowell, who beat Daicos to win the Brownlow.

“Maybe it was taken that I was disrespecting Matty Rowell, which is completely not what I said,” McRae said.

“The AFL processes can be improved, that’s maybe where I was targeting the 16 possessions.

“The whole game itself – we need to live in a growth mindset, there’s an opportunity for all of us to improve.

“I look at our best-and-fairest – we have to look at ourselves. We have to keep improving ourselves all the time, about how we conduct the game and what the game looks like.”

Daicos also was runner-up in the club best-and-fairest voting behind ruckman Darcy Cameron.

“The process is in place, I always want to challenge it. Darcy Cameron is a great winner, but I’d look at the process and … there are times when Nick could probably get more votes here and there,” McRae said.

Collingwood’s season ended with the preliminary final loss to premiers Brisbane, and Josh Daicos, Nick’s older brother, said watching the Lions beat Geelong in the grand final was hard going.

“It’s probably the toughest watch I’ve had in all my career, just knowing how we were playing during the year, the emotion, the feeling we had as a group,” Daicos said.

“I really did feel throughout the year that we would be there.”

McRae and Daicos were speaking at the launch of the Caulfield Cup carnival, where they are ambassadors.

McRae is part-owner of Feroce, which is running this Saturday in the Toorak Handicap.

“I’m just getting the late mail every day and it seems like it might be a sneaky chance,” McRae said.

“The horse has improved a lot since his last run, so gamble responsibly.”