One premiership cup and a baby: How Craig McRae celebrated Mad Monday

Two days after announcing his daughter’s birth to a crowd of more than 100,000 people at the MCG, Collingwood coach Craig McRae shared a quiet moment with newborn Maggie and the premiership cup on Monday.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae with his newborn daughter Maggie and the premiership cup and medal on Monday.Credit: Collingwood Football Club

Maggie, less than three days old, was wrapped in a Magpie scarf and nestled in the cup, with her dad cradling them and beaming while wearing his premiership medallion.

McRae, 50, stunned the jubilant Magpie Army in the aftermath of the Pies’ four-point win over Brisbane in Saturday’s grand final by announcing from the stage that his daughter had been born at 7.45 that morning.

He said it was already the best day of his life, before the grand final even began.

The family shared some quiet time together away from the team’s Mad Monday celebrations.

And not content with unseating Geelong as reigning AFL premiers, the Pies set about stealing the Cats’ mantle as back-to-back-to-back Mad Monday champions.

Pies captain Darcy Moore is blessed with long blonde locks reminiscent of Legolas, the elf prince from Lord of the Rings who can fire off dozens of arrows in a single flurry.

Moore is better at intercept marking than archery, but he does come from a famous dynasty (Legolas is the son of the Elvenking Thranduil and Moore received the cup from his famous footballing father Peter), and the premiership captain turned up at Richmond’s Sporting Globe on Monday as the Orlando Bloom character.

Alongside him was fellow defender Isaac Quaynor, dressed in Mercedes gear as Formula 1 great Lewis Hamilton. Only six more flags and he can equal Hamilton as a seven-time champion.

Jack Ginnivan received a clip from his coach for heading to the races the night before the grand final but he stuck with the theme on Monday by turning up in jockey silks.

Veterans Scott Pendlebury and Jeremy Howe were in full Peaky Blinders kit, complete with newsboy caps and suspenders. Mason Cox, the big American, arrived as a towering Tyrannosaurus.

Geelong have set the bar high for Mad Monday costumes, last year dressing as elderly retirement village residents after becoming the oldest team to win the premiership.

This year, the Cats didn’t make the finals but still delivered elite post-season celebrations, re-enacting the goal umpiring blunder that ended Adelaide’s finals hopes, and a fake Gerard Whateley tweet.

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