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Collingwood coach Craig McRae believes no other AFL club’s list is scrutinised more than the high-profile Magpies’, and that the infatuation is driven by online “clicks”.
McRae was speaking after Saturday night’s runaway 27-point victory over Port Adelaide saw the Magpies provisionally climb into 10th spot ahead of Sunday’s games, with six wins and a draw from 14 matches.
Collingwood have the oldest and most experienced list in the competition, with Jordan De Goey, Jamie Elliott, Scott Pendlebury, Dan McStay, Darcy Cameron, Steele Sidebottom, Jack Crisp, Tim Membrey, Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe all on the wrong side of 30.
They also lack the high-end emerging youth of other clubs, and are aggressively in the market for the likes of Lachie Neale, Zak Butters, Ben King and Jed Walter – but McRae thinks the focus on the Pies’ list is overblown.
“It’s probably over-examined. I don’t recall any other list in the competition has been examined as much as ours, and judged, but again, we get clicks, so it creates storytelling, opinions,” he said.
“It’s an interesting narrative around where we’re at. We’re working towards being the best version of us. I didn’t look at the age demographic of our team tonight, but there are a lot of different players who haven’t played together. Chemistry is important. It’s hard to describe it, but there’s a lot of talk about it, isn’t there?”
De Goey cheekily sent an SOS for would-be Magpie recruit Neale in a radio interview this week, which only fuelled the fire. But with all that going on, McRae and Collingwood just needed a win. As he put it afterwards, the season had reached a “critical” juncture, and it was time to put up or shut up.
If not for De Goey and Nick Daicos’ second-quarter intervention, this might have been a drastically different night for a Pies outfit that is battling to even challenge for the new wildcard finals round.
“You talk about who’s playing tonight, and [there were] opportunities for Harvey Harrison, you’ve got Ed Allan backing up, playing against Butters – a big experience for him – Sam Swadling playing his first game, and Jack Buller is starting to look more Collingwood than he has in recent times,” McRae said.
“But you need your stars to be stars, and Nick and Jordy, I thought, were significant in finishing our work and impacting the game.”
Neither team kicked a goal in the final quarter of a forgettable game that attracted only 40,860 fans, who were treated to masterclass performances from two of the Magpies’ biggest stars.
De Goey kicked three goals from 26 disposals, while Daicos racked up 41 touches, nine clearances and 10 score involvements. They were equally brilliant, and Collingwood needed them badly, particularly in the opening half.
Missing Elliott, captain Moore, defender Brayden Maynard (who turns 30 in September) and ageless record-breaker Pendlebury – and having lost three of their past four matches by eight points or fewer, to Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and Sydney – the Pies were 19 points down in the second quarter.
In reality, it should have been worse, but Port frittered away a series of goal-scoring opportunities.
More alarmingly, Craig McRae’s men conceded five consecutive goals after Tim Membrey and Lachie Schultz kicked the first two of the game.
But everything changed for the better in an eight-minute purple patch where De Goey bobbed up for two goals – the second a classy left-foot finish – before Daicos flushed a midair strike that would not have been out of place at the FIFA World Cup.
“We knew coming here that Port have been playing really good footy, and in a lot of games, and [we were] under no illusion we were going to have to play well to beat them,” McRae said.
“I felt like we had 10 minutes of footy in the second quarter that sort of stabilised the game for us, and without that, they’d really dominated most parts of the game … so I had a bit of an optimistic lens, going, ‘Well, we’ve played only 10 minutes in the second quarter, and the scores are level. Come on, boys, let’s go, let’s get moving’.”
The Power, who looked so good for much of the first half, managed just one more goal for the match as they limped to the finish line with a miserable 6.16 (52) scoreline to Collingwood’s 11.12 (78).
Making matters worse, Port lost Jack Lukosius (calf) early in the second half in his first senior game in two months before Esava Ratugolea (suspected ruptured patellar tendon) and Ewan Mackinlay (MCL strain) also went down.
Ratugolea, who snared six intercept marks to half-time in a strong partnership with Aliir Aliir, was down for a significant period, and eventually stretchered off. Coach Josh Carr predicted the ex-Geelong defender could be sidelined for the next year.
“It’s a patellar tendon, and it looks like it’s ruptured, and he’s going into emergency now. Most likely, he will get an operation tonight, so that’s a long-term injury,” Carr said.
“It’s probably, most likely 12 months [out], I think. He’s in pretty good form, and marking the footy, and it’s obviously disappointing and flattening for him and his family, and us as a footy club.”
The Magpies still finished with fewer inside 50s and contested possessions, and split the clearances, as their stars, including Howe, who added another big mark to his collection, carried them across the line.
They have Richmond, Gold Coast (away), North Melbourne and Carlton to come across the next month.
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