Regardless that Craig McRae’s cardiac children misplaced their Midas contact after they wanted it most, he is aware of Collingwood is onto one thing.
However first, the Magpies coach is set to maintain Jordan de Goey
McRae was equal elements shattered and proud after they fell to Sydney by one level — 14.11 (95) to 14.10 (94) — in Saturday’s riveting preliminary closing on the SCG.
Collingwood stormed into the highest 4 with a unlikely string of tight wins — they had been 9-1 in video games determined by seven factors or much less — however on the enterprise finish of the season, they misplaced the qualifying closing to Geelong by six factors.
And now they’ve ended their season by the barest of margins.
However, the “winners solely” message that the first-year senior coach wrote on the changeroom whiteboard stands true for a workforce that stormed from second-bottom final 12 months.
It was an extension of the fast aftermath of their slim loss to the Cats, when a handful of Collingwood gamers slumped to the bottom in despair.
That irked McRae, who advised them post-match not to take action once more.
And instantly after Saturday’s loss, the Collingwood gamers stayed standing and thanked their followers, who applauded them in return.
“The best way they thanked them as they’re strolling off the bottom — I have never seen that to too many groups, enjoying an interstate closing, and dropping and then you definitely go and thank your supporters and the supporters thank them simply as a lot,” McRae mentioned.
“That is a reasonably particular factor.
“I did write up on the whiteboard we’re ‘winners solely’ — winners solely, for us, is a catch cry we have used proper from day one.
“Typically if you lose, you’ll be able to nonetheless act like winners. It is about what we wish to be”.
Whereas nothing is assured for subsequent season, McRae is assured they may construct on this 12 months’s heroics.
“As you’d anticipate, you set quite a bit on the road, you come right down to little moments, nevertheless it’s been a protracted 12 months of making an attempt to higher ourselves and push new alternatives and new discovery and new risk. We fall agonisingly quick,” he mentioned.
“We begin 18th once more, however there’s plenty of stuff that is been constructed and beginning to change into foundations of what we wish to be.
“There is a sample of behaviour that is been constant, that means why we’re on this place.
“I already know our recreation plan does not need to be … reinvented. Most of it is all there and the expansion within the group has been excellent.”
However first issues first. Instantly after the sport, McRae buttonholed de Goey’s supervisor.
De Goey’s low season misdemeanours over the previous 12 months put his future at Collingwood unsure, however the Magpies star has been large within the second half of the season.
Certainly, Luke Parker’s excellent job on de Goey was a key purpose the Swans gained.
“I grabbed his supervisor and mentioned ‘let’s get to work on this’, as a result of I’ve mentioned this overtly, I would like Jordy at our footy membership subsequent 12 months,” McRae mentioned.
“Now I do not understand how that is progressing, however hopefully it is progressing in the suitable route — not as a result of he is Jordy de Goey, however I simply assume this surroundings is the very best place for Jordy de Goey.”
AAP