How Collingwood can ensure the Craig McRae coaching era is a success

Who is the man in charge of Collingwood’s rebuild? See the full Craig McRae resume and find out how his time at the Pies can be a success.

McRae after winning a flag with the Tigers. Picture: AAP Images

Collingwood has been warned it must find the resources to surround Craig McRae with an elite band of support staff as the Pies chose a bold new direction appointing their next senior coach.

The Magpies have chosen a low-profile but hugely rated coach in a departure from hiring favourite sons Nathan Buckley and Tony Shaw and dual premiership coach Mick Malthouse as the club’s three most recent appointments.

Brisbane premiership teammate Alastair Lynch and his Richmond 2019 VFL captain Steve Morris told the Herald Sun McRae would quickly build brilliant relationships with the entire club.

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Craig McRae coached Richmond's VFL side. Getty Images

They said he was the perfect man to continue a considerable rebuild but Lynch warned McRae would need to be supported at a club battling a board war and still many years from success.

Pies football boss Graham Wright said last week the club’s new coach would have the power to bring in some lieutenants if the club had soft cap space but Leppitsch has made it known for some time he would be returning to clubland next year.

Caretaker Robert Harvey has been moved on while Brenton Sanderson is also uncontracted, which will create space for Justin Leppitsch after his twin stints with McRae at Richmond.

McRae returns to a club where he was the head of development for five seasons from 2011 before stints at Richmond as the VFL premiership coach before a year at the Hawks.

McRae played in 195 games for Brisbane and all three of their premierships from 2001-2003 before retiring after the 2004 season.

Lynch spent those Brisbane years with small forward McRae playing at his feet as a tough left-footer who went “low and hard every week for the ball” and said he would be perfect in the Pies role.

“He has had a wealth of experience in successful organisations under successful coaches and he’s just a very good communicator,” Lynch said.

“He has worked with Leigh Matthews, Alastair Clarkson, Justin Leppitsch, Damien Hardwick, with Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley at Collingwood and he has been at big clubs and he has coached his own side.”

McRae after winning a flag with the Tigers. Picture: AAP Images

“He has strong relationships and he’s tactically astute and he will be a fantastic coach, but if you are going to make that appointment you need to give him the support he needs and wants because it can be a reasonably difficult transition.

“He will need the right assistants around him, the right people and if there are difficult times he needs the right people to support him at board level and across the club because he’s still a young coach and you need to give him time to put the right structures around him and allow him to build the culture.

Morris played as the Richmond VFL captain in 2019 and said McRae made every person across the organisation feel important.

“I have a sensational relationship with him and one of the major strengths is he recognises everyone in a program regardless of how big or small their involvement is. He is a real people person. I am stoked for him. He reads the game really well and he will be a sensational coach.

“The major thing coaching a VFL program that is aligned with an AFL club is it’s a difficult task. Guys are coming back from the AFL that aren’t overly rapt to be there and the way he created a really safe space for those players to thrive was a real credit to the coach he is and the person he is.

“It was evident in the genuine care he had in the people in his program, it was really evident from the property guys and trainers down to myself and the AFL guys, there was not a player in the program that didn’t feel valued.

“He has been toiling away for many years with no fanfare and it speaks volume of the fact he’s in the running because he’s not a huge high-profile name.

“It probably suggests that he’s been recognised for doing a sensational job and playing his role in the position he’s been in with clubs like Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn.

Originally published as How Collingwood can ensure the Craig McRae coaching era is a success