How Collingwood convinced Lachie Schultz to request a trade to the Magpies

Craig McRae has turned role players into premiership stars, now he’ll try to do the same with Docker Lachie Schultz. Jon Ralph goes inside the move.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 30: Craig McRae, Senior Coach of the Magpies is seen during the 2023 AFL Grand Final match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 30, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Craig McRae’s powers of persuasion can move mountains.

For Fremantle half forward Lachie Schultz, it wasn’t even a fair fight.

Collingwood looks set to land Schultz in coming days using all the hallmarks that won them the flag – McRae’s charisma and glass-half-full approach, football boss Graham Wright’s dealmaking and the power of football’s biggest club.

And this time the dexterity to be able to act in a matter of days to use the setback of Taylor Adams’ exit as an opportunity to dive head first into wooing Schultz.

Schultz and his partner have always wanted to return to Victoria at some stage given family reasons, but had put that move on the backburner as recently as season’s end.

He had put together another consistently excellent season – 33.19 (second only to Jye Amiss’s 41 majors), an average of 1.1 score assists, 5.5 score involvements, 4.1 tackles.

He ticked off a games-based clause that locked the unrestricted free agent in until 2024, actually limiting his options this off-season.

But talks were underway about another extension.

Lachie Schultz has requested a trade to Collingwood. Picture: Michael Klein

He would secure a significant pay rise, the move home would be delayed, and his multiple suitors including Collingwood would have to move on.

The Dockers, fully aware of his reasons for one day moving home, believed they had got their man.

But during the post-season break Schultz and partner Maddie returned home to spend time in Echuca and Moama – both attended school together in Moama – and realised how much they missed family and friends.

Only they can say how that development might have affected his contract discussions and future if the Taylor Adams move hadn’t played out after Callum Mills wrecked his shoulder on Mad Monday.

On the Wednesday after the grand final, Adams told the Pies he was exploring a trade to Sydney.

They were floored given he was still the club’s vice-captain.

Swans football boss Charlie Gardiner wouldn’t confirm if Sydney had made first contact or whether Adams had broached a move, following his great mate Brodie Grundy.

But suddenly the Pies had a hole at half forward, up to $600,000 of cap space, and would secure another draft pick for Adams to go with their own first-round selection.

Contact was made over the weekend between the parties.

McRae’s pitch was overpowering, as usual.

And while Hawthorn had chased Schultz hard two years ago, those close to him knew Collingwood was the perfect landing spot to make use of Schultz’s powers.

The former plumbing apprentice who found his way to AFL through the Bendigo Pioneers and Williamstown, he is less interested in the bright lights and fame than a chance to maximise his football potential.

Collingwood, with an elite midfield, a wide-open premiership window and 15-plus MCG games a year, fits the bill perfectly.

That McRae pitch is believed to have come over the weekend.

McRae has turned role players like Billy Frampton and Bobby Hill into premiership heroes, so what will he do once he gets his hands on Schultz?

Schultz kicked 33 goals for the Dockers in 2023. Picture: Getty Images

Collingwood is aware their offer to Fremantle will have to be more significant than any free agency compensation the Dockers could acquire if they held him next year.

A deal involving a player from another club heading to Fremantle had fallen through by Wednesday, so the Pies and Fremantle will continue to haggle.

And yet Wright rarely fails to deliver.

Collingwood is in that perfect post-premiership glow where even paying slightly too much from a trade perspective will be fine by the Magpie Army.

If he lands at the Pies the 178cm forward will arrive as a goalkicker but Pies fans will fall in love with his tackling early on.

He is a tough little bugger, rating elite for forward 50 pressure as well as being a lovely touch kick to advantage who snaps well for goals on both feet.

So in a competition that has never been equal, the premiers only get stronger just as Richmond did with Tom Lynch in 2019 and Geelong with Ollie Henry last year.

Add landing Schultz to McRae’s recent list of achievements including a 50th birthday on preliminary final day, an AFL premiership and a new daughter Maggie with wife Gabrielle.

Originally published as How Collingwood convinced Lachie Schultz to request a trade to the Magpies