Craig McRae: Collingwood coach’s selfless sacrifice for Richmond VFL property steward Shane Harris revealed

Supporting Collingwood would be a last resort for most rival supporters. But, this inspiring story involving coach Craig McRae might change your mind about the Magpies.

Craig McRae and Pat Lipinski enjoy Collingwood’s Round 23 win.

Craig McRae might have saved Shane Harris‘s life.

He certainly revitalised it.

In 2016 Harris, Richmond’s VFL property steward, was overweight and unmotivated and McRae was the Tigers’ new VFL coach.

So McRae would meet Harris at 4.45pm to walk laps of Punt Rd for an hour before training.

They would talk footy, team selection and life. At first it was one or two laps and Harris‘s legs and body would ache for days afterwards.

Three years later and they were powering through 10-12 laps.

“In 2019 walking those laps with him I lost 50kg,” Harris, 59, said this week.

“It was four sizes in shirts. I felt amazing. Whatever he gets out of football he deserves.”

Craig McRae and Steve Morris after Richmond’s 2019 VFL Grand Final win.

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Life is different for Harris thanks to McRae. He is happier and he is healthier.

“(McRae) just got me out of my shell and motivated me,” Harris said.

“It mentally got me going again. I’ve always said he’s my hero and my idol.

“I can’t thank him enough. Really, I can’t thank him enough.”

Shane Harris says Craig McRae is his idol.

Everywhere McRae goes he makes people feel special. He is authentic, polite and a damn good football coach.

When McRae‘s AFL360 interview ended last week ‘Fly’ didn’t fly out of the Fox Footy studios.

Instead, he looked every cameraman in the eye and shook their hand before departing.

This year McRae, 48, has offered that same respect to several journalists after press conferences.

It might sound simple, but in that moment McRae makes you feel important. If that’s the media’s vibe, imagine how his own players must feel?

Probably like they want to play desperately for him. Like they don’t want to let him down. Like they will fight for every second until the siren sounds.

McRae and his Magpies have emerged as the story of the season. From 17th to fourth, this magic carpet ride has swept up football supporters of all clubs.

They’ve won 11 games by 11 points or less and they practice close finishes at the end of their training sessions.

They pretend there’s two minutes to go and ingrain how to play in various scenarios.

There’s a lot of yellow and black about the black and white game plan, too, as Tiger Jack Graham told the Herald Sun after the clubs faced off in round 8.

Craig McRae and his Magpies have been one of the stories of the year.

“It was Richmond v Richmond, really, the way ‘Fly’ (Craig McRae) and ‘Leppa’ (Justin Leppitsch) coach,“ Graham said.

“How they move the ball with the corridor, we wanted to own it but they wanted to defend it and vice-versa.”

McRae recounted this week how he played Shakira‘s 2005 hit ’Hips Don’t Lie’ when showing a series of edits to his players where their hips were not in line with the goals.

At the Tigers, McCrae gifted his own 2019 VFL premiership medal to Jake Aarts, who missed the grand final through suspension.

It was a private Luke Beveridge-Bob Murphy moment between a coach and his devastated player.

Aarts has credited McRae with connecting Richmond — both the VFL and AFL programs and players and staff.

“It’s probably the biggest reason why we were so successful, both at AFL and VFL level, through Fly’s (McCrae) connection,” Aarts said last year.

One player coached by McCrae at the Tigers said: “It doesn’t matter if you’re the toilet cleaner or the reigning best-and-fairest – he treats everyone the same“.

Another said it felt like McRae was only coaching him – and not a long list of VFL and AFL players – such was his care factor.

Craig McRae is known for the care he shows for his players.

When you mix McCrae‘s teaching tricks with his emotional bond it becomes clearer why you have to play every minute to beat his miraculous Magpies.

McRae‘s media bites are brilliant because they are so real. There’s countless examples.

When Jack Ginnivan became a human headline at the start of the season, McRae said: “To be honest I don’t care if he’s got Pink hair as long as he keeps playing his role and putting pressure on and getting under the opposition’s skin. There’s a role for that within the rules”.

Three weeks later and Ginnivan was the Anzac Day medallist, the teenager torching Essendon with five goals in front of 84,205 screaming fans.

When the Tigers beat the Magpies, McRae said: “I said to the players, I feel we are eight rounds in and it‘s eight dates into a relationship. (Richmond) are more like married with three kids”.

After the Magpies’ only real poor performance for the season, a 48-point loss to the Western Bulldogs under the Friday night nights, McRae texted his assistants on Sunday and decided to drill into the positives rather than dwell on what went horribly wrong.

Bingo. They won their next 11 games, becoming just the second Collingwood team in 57 years to get on such a roll.

McRae has steered the Magpies from 17th to the top four.

Last week McRae offered up a windscreen wiper analogy to his troops when Carlton led by four goals at the final change.

“I’m really big on, to use this windscreen wiper analogy, moving things to the side,” McRae said.

“A lot of stuff was out of our control in the third quarter. I thought the rub of the green sort of went their way with decisions that were maybe not there.

“Oh well, that happens, wipe it away, stay present, move on. It was a bit of removing what was and then let’s get our eyes on hey, this is what we do, let’s be really aggressive with our ball movement and see what happens.”

Footy legend Leigh Matthews, who coached McRae at Brisbane, loved its simplicity.

““I just was really taken with that analogy,” Matthews said.

“ You can’t be too complicated with players. It was a fantastic choice of words.”

Originally published as Craig McRae: Collingwood coach’s selfless sacrifice for Richmond VFL property steward Shane Harris revealed