AFL: Collingwood coach Craig McRae says 2022 loss was turning point

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has revealed a dark spell where he “couldn’t get out of bed” that he thinks was the catalyst for the Magpies’ flag tilt.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae says a mid-season loss to the Western Bulldogs in 2022 was a catalyst for Collingwood’s rapid rise to flag contenders. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

Collingwood coach Craig McRae says an embarrassing mid-season defeat in 2022 was the turning point that sparked a change in his attitude and helped drive the Magpies to a flag.

The premiership mentor said he “couldn’t get out of bed” the morning after a heavy 48-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in round 9, 2022, but it sparked a “moment of clarity” that dramatically altered the Pies’ trajectory.

Collingwood won 11 games in a row after that loss – nine of them by a single-digit margin – and claimed victory in 34 of its 42 matches since in a stunning turnaround after sitting 11th on the ladder.

McRae told the Howie Games podcast on LiSTNR that the Bulldogs loss was a “defining moment” for an inexperienced side early in his tenure as coach.

A dejected Magpies side leaves the field after a 48-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium in round 9, 2022. Craig McRae says the defeat was a ‘defining moment’ in the Pies’ rise to a flag. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

“We weren’t going so well, had a few guys out, Pendles (Scott Pendlebury) was a late withdrawal, and if you look at the team, we were really inexperienced, and we were in a formation of trying to change our game plan,” he said.

“This was the defining moment for this group. We played the Friday night, and Saturday morning I couldn’t get out of bed. I was tossing and turning. My wife comes and gets me and said, ‘You’ve got to get out of bed’ … and I said, ‘I can’t’ … and she said, ‘You’ve got the solutions, Craig. You know what to do, just be you … Be positive, Craig, it’s the only way through’.

“I had this moment of clarity going, ‘Right, I don’t care what we’ve just done or what we’ve been. This is who we’re going to be’. And I rang all the assistant coaches and said, ‘Don’t come in on Monday and tell me what we’re not doing. Go and find the evidence of the things that we’re going to be’.”

Craig McRae with his daughter Maggie at the premiere of Collingwood’s premiership documentary at Hoyts Melbourne Central on Wednesday night. Picture: Jason Edwards

McRae attributed part of Collingwood’s extraordinary run of close wins to his coaching staff applying a fine tooth comb to the dying moments of each victory and giving feedback to players on where they could have saved more time.

“During all these close wins (in 2022), we were reviewing it deep … ‘What about the second you could have wasted there? We’ve got two minutes to go, we can’t do this’ … and we really drilled down like I’ve never done before,” he said.

“It became a foundation for what grand final Day was. We’d learnt all these lessons for two years in how to win these close games.

“We’re forming this – and I shouldn’t say it – but this bulletproof plan that players just knew what to do. Funnily enough, because the opposition aren’t doing this as much as we are, it becomes a competitive advantage for us.”