Jon Ralph: Too old? Too slow? Issues Craig McRae must address ahead of Pies’ Port Adelaide clash

The Pies aren’t dead and buried yet, but JON RALPH writes, there’s plenty of questions Craig McRae will need to address to avoid starting 0-2 in back-to-back seasons.

Ken Hinkley’s megastar midfielders would have got the iciest of cold shoulders on Monday morning.

Surely Hinkley sauntered into Alberton Oval past the A-graders and made a beeline for his best tagger in Willem Drew.

Heck, he might have even brought out the tape of the Power belting the hell out of Max Gawn in 2019 as a clarion call for his side ahead of Saturday’s Collingwood clash.

The message for Drew ahead of a match-up with Nick Daicos on Saturday – chop off the head of the snake.

For all of its off-season recruiting, Collingwood is suddenly staring down the barrel of a 0-2 start to the season.

It was a tough first game for the Pies’ superstar. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

And after such an interrupted pre-season with his plantar fascia battles, Daicos just can’t call upon the turbochargers to get Collingwood out of a hole.

As a result he has put a massive target upon his own back for the list of taggers he is about to encounter in the next eight weeks.

With such a compromised pre-season he tried the only option available against taggers – running Toby Bedford off his feet.

Instead he ran himself to a standstill and opened the door for clubs who had believed he was close to untaggable at full fitness.

It couldn’t have been more obvious if he had erected a ‘Tag Me’ sign outside Olympic Park.

Drew will surely go to his side to replicate Toby Bedford’s tight-checking tactics, with his teammates doing everything possible to bump, harass and bruise Daicos like Gawn before him.

The likes of George Hewett (round 4), James Jordon (round 5) and Jarrod Berry (round 6) won’t be far behind for Daicos.

Collingwood isn’t cooked yet.

Not by a long shot in a 23-game home-and-away season where Hawthorn and Brisbane responded from deep dark holes to push well into last year’s finals.

Craig McRae will have plenty to ponder ahead of Collingwood’s clash with Port. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Yet Daicos’ struggles magnified all the issues which would have kept Craig McRae up at night over summer as he wondered if he had rectified the issues of 2024.

Old? Definitely, with Champion Data stats showing this Pies side was the most experienced team in its entire history and fifth-oldest for average age.

Slow? No doubt, with even the man who stops time in Scott Pendlebury harassed into uncharacteristic errors.

Bedford kept Daicos to less than 70 metres gained from 17 first-half touches then blew up by half time with full body cramps, and is surely many weeks from full fitness.

If Collingwood had any thoughts about risking Jordan De Goey (knee bone bruising) off a short prep against the Power they are out the window given Daicos’ struggles.

And without their two star midfielders on top, the Pies look glacial, old and at times unwilling to run defensively when a team like GWS gets the forward-handballing blitzkrieg going.

The reality is that as much as Harry Perryman was impressive in his Pies debut, Collingwood can look second-rate when De Goey and Daicos aren’t running amok.

McRae will hold onto one stat to sustain him even as he surveys the wreckage of that contest.

The Pies won the first possession by 22 (they won clearances by plus four) and yet butchered chances going forward so should have got so much more bang for buck from their inside 50s.

But the most alarming aspect of the loss was that Collingwood had a full 13-week pre-season to adjust to the rigours of this season.

As Darcy Cameron joked post-match, the pre-season actually felt too long.

“We have had a really good pre-season and people out there were cramping today. It was hot early. But we back our pre-season in and the boys have been training really well. We will look at the positives during the week and shift our attention to Port Adelaide,” he said.

The Pies know that playing GWS on a fast ENGIE Stadium track with so many golden oldies was if not a recipe for disaster then at least a significant challenge.

Now McRae needs to rejig his side in a manner that means they are still in the finals race by the time the sting is out of the ground in winter as the game slows down for Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and co.

Bringing Tom Mitchell into this already-slow midfield shapes as a huge challenge even when he is fully fit.

Dan Houston’s Pies debut will help that transition game next week in a modern game where teams won flags with elite kicks off half back in Nick Daicos (2023) and Dayne Zorko (2024).

McRae lost his cool over Toby Bedford but he would have been just as aggrieved by Sam Taylor’s nine intercept marks from the Pies’ 55 inside 50s.

Collingwood’s veterans struggled against the Giants. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Dan Houston will make his Pies debut this week. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Brody Mihocek kicked two goals (one from that Toby Bedford 50m penalty) but Dan McStay didn’t fire a shot when close to goal and Tim Membrey’s day was summed up by being run down in the goalsquare.

Jamie Elliott hasn’t lost his pace or verve (two goals) but Lachie Schultz is a massive concern.

He was the second-worst rated player on the ground (ahead of Aaron Cadman) and needs more impact for a club that gave up a future first-rounder and pick 34.

No Pies supporter needed reminding that the future first-rounder they gave up to secure the points for Nick Daicos could have secured them the game’s dominant player in Finn Callaghan.

Imagine both of them in this midfield.

The Pies know they need some of Reef McInnes, Ed Allan, Harry DeMattia, Ned Long and Beau McCreery to really pop, and there is plenty of time for them to emerge.

But just consider the Giants’ vast draft riches in a team that was without pick 10 Tom Green, Coleman Medallist Jesse Hogan and Jake Stringer.

This team has 22 players drafted at pick 25 or under and has stockpiled so many high draft picks we haven’t seen much of yet.

They include Phoenix Gothard (pick 12), Conor Stone (pick 15), Leek Aleer (pick 15), Harry Rowston (pick 16), James Leake (pick 17), Ollie Hannaford (pick 18) and Cody Angove (pick 24).

The brilliant Darcy Jones (pick 21), key tall Max Gruzewksi (pick 22, part of the Tim Taranto haul), No. 1 overall pick Cadman and Callaghan (pick 3) were all out there as well on Sunday.

They are firmly in the premiership race with a window that extends for years.

There is a doomsday scenario that the Pies aren’t good enough and don’t have kids to replace the veterans.

We are nowhere near that point yet, but the onus is on Daicos and McRae to respond immediately so this loss is a blip on the radar instead of an ongoing trend.

Originally published as Jon Ralph: Too old? Too slow? Issues Craig McRae must address ahead of Pies’ Port Adelaide clash