CRAIG McRae is ready to go when I pull up out the front of his house at 5:50 am last Wednesday. The pressure of win-loss hasn’t arrived just yet, but days in the pre-season are more bumper-to-bumper than winter. Everyone wants a piece of the Collingwood coach, which is why he hits the road in the dark.
Williamstown is still curled up in bed as we weave our way through the quiet, wide streets in this part of Melbourne’s western suburbs. By the time we reach the West Gate Bridge, there are plenty of cars driving towards the city as the sun rises in the rear-view mirror.
Opening Round and Pre-Season Strategy
After four winning seasons to start his time as a senior coach, McRae has delegated more this pre-season than ever before. That was the plan after the Magpies fell on preliminary final weekend to eventual premier Brisbane on September 20. The 52-year-old was involved in the December training block at Olympic Park but didn’t return to the club after the Christmas break until Australia Day. Criticism comes with the territory in this caper, but ‘Fly’ was surprised by the backlash around this decision.
He spent January with his wife and three daughters being a dad and husband, rather than a coach, working around the house, digging up the garden, attending swimming lessons, and starting baby gymnastics with his youngest child. Collingwood vice-president Paul Licuria drove the move. The dual Copeland Trophy winner joined the board in 2018 and has been a regular presence in the rooms and around a club where he is a member of the Magpies Hall of Fame.
McRae consulted Magpies captain Darcy Moore and the leadership group to ensure they were comfortable with it. They implored him to step back. Late December and January is the only time of the year the industry shuts down. The 2023 premiership coach wants Collingwood to be industry leaders in this space. He wants his staff to take breaks at the right time to be fresh when it matters most.
“We made a plan. Paul Licuria has been pushing it hard to take more time away from the place to have more energy when you’re here,” McRae explained to AFL.com.au on his drive to work last Wednesday.
Leadership and Mentorship
McRae isn’t the first person inside the KGM Centre when we arrive, but the lights aren’t on in most of a building Collingwood relocated to from its spiritual home Victoria Park in 2004 under the leadership of Eddie McGuire and Greg Swann. He usually spends the first half an hour on the treadmill to clear his head on main training days, but his first meeting starts on Microsoft Teams at 6:30 am.
Peering over the coach’s shoulder on this call are George Angus, Jock McHale, Phonse Kyne, Leigh Matthews, and Mick Malthouse. They aren’t literally in the room, but commanding life-size images of Collingwood’s five other premiership coaches illustrate how tough they are to win. McRae led the Magpies to a record-equalling 16th flag in his second season in the job and has a few small photo frames in his office to commemorate the day.
Four other coaches from across the globe are on this call, which is run by Aleda, the leadership company founded by Western Bulldogs great Luke Darcy. While the sun starts to beam through McRae’s office on Olympic Boulevard, it is pitch black in Oslo where Norway women’s national team manager Gemma Grainger is currently based. Ivan Cleary is active in the meeting, demonstrating the lessons that helped him become the first coach in the NRL era to win four consecutive premierships when he led the Penrith Panthers to unchartered territory between 2021 and 2024.
“Player leadership and empowerment, handing things over, they do it really well, they’re the elite of their country, clearly,” McRae said.
Challenges and Future Prospects
Each coach is asked to address a challenge they are currently facing. McRae kickstarts the discussion by raising the topic we discussed in the car. A 68.9 per cent winning record from his first 99 games in charge, three September visits in four seasons, and a premiership don’t insulate him from scrutiny. Others have a view, but only McRae can navigate these waters.
McRae isn’t short on advice. America’s Cup skipper John Bertand AO is in the diary for a walk around the tan the following morning, while legendary Ironman Trevor Hendy is also a mentor. In the off-season, McRae travelled to Europe with Skipworth, Gardiner, and Wade to go in camp with Scottish Rugby for a week ahead of an international against the All Blacks in Edinburgh. Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend spent the same amount of time inside Collingwood months earlier, before opening the doors to the Magpies, where one thing really stood out.
Hayden Skipworth is directing traffic in the pre-training planning meeting when McRae takes his seat in the match committee room. Midfield coach Matthew Boyd and backline coach Jordan Roughead are prepared for their drills. AFLW star Brit Bonnici, who is spending a part of her off-season developing her coaching craft within the AFL program, is also present alongside the Pies’ new-look development team that includes former Magpies Nathan Murphy and Matthew Lokan, as well as Essendon great Dyson Heppell.
“I definitely want to be a senior coach,” Skipworth said. “I feel like I’ve been working towards it for a long period now and then it’s just about working out what’s right for me and right for the club and whether the two fit for each other.”
Building a Legacy
There is a theatrette at the club, but it remains dormant; the coach prefers this room. Chairs are arranged in a horseshoe so players can eyeball each other. It is more intimate than tiered seating, just the way ‘Fly’ likes it. The pre-training meeting doesn’t start until the music stops. Performance analytics manager Jack Prato is an endless source of information for the coach, but in this guise, he is a DJ.
When he hits pause, McRae starts the meeting on a light note asking how a few players spent their day off. Recruit Jack Buller played golf with Billy Frampton, who confesses he just got his handicap, which is 40, much to the amusement of the room.
McRae quickly changes gears. Intuition is a strength and he senses the mood is different inside the building this week, like it would be in the 17 other clubs across the country. Games have arrived. Premiership points aren’t up for grabs just yet, but spots are. And with that comes anxiety. Today he will inform a handful of players they haven’t been selected to play against Greater Western Sydney. He invites Collingwood’s leaders to address how players should deal with selection this year. Twenty-three players are picked each week, many will leave disappointed. Darcy Moore says it’s OK to feel disappointed, it’s part of the game, but carry yourself in the right way.
Collingwood had two players selected for Origin, but they were also represented by head of high performance Jarrod Wade and club AFL property manager Jennifer Plumb, who were involved in camp with Victoria. Wade joined Collingwood from the South Sydney Rabbitohs weeks after McRae in 2021. Since then, the fitness boss has become one of the most revered in the League. His presence is all over the program, especially in the pre-season, but he has a simple message to communicate to the group before training: “Reef is going to do matchplay for the first time in 330 days.” The room erupts.
“It was cool to get back in with the lads, hit some bodies and just feel normal again,” McInnes told me over lunch.
Nathan Murphy has been in McInnes’ corner. Playing was taken away from him far earlier than expected, but now the premiership Pie is emerging as an outstanding young coach, working closely with the backline at Collingwood.
Everything is planned to the minute on main training days in the pre-season. Clocks are synchronised around the building and ubiquitous. The moment this meeting ends half the players head to the indoor kicking area – the green floor – where the sun is beaming through the Glasshouse windows. Russell Coight is waiting for them, they just don’t know it yet. Glenn Robbins, the actor from All Aussie Adventures isn’t actually in the building, but he is on the big screen in front of the seats that were originally used to watch the swimming from at the 1956 Olympic Games.
Jordan Roughead and Nathan Murphy have gotten creative with a footwork drill involving three players tied together. The first group don’t buy in as much as the second. “Few stiffs in that group,” Matthew Boyd quips. But the next group is all in. Darcy Cameron is given the job to lead the Russell Coight line dance with the stomp, shuffle, kick and embraces it. Jordan De Goey, Brayden Maynard, Billy Frampton and Lachie Sullivan ensure everyone else is all in, much to the amusement of those looking on from the administration side of the building. The energy is up, now it’s time to start training.
Only four players are currently unavailable for selection. Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe are both recovering from calf strains and facing delayed starts to the season. Reef McInnes has almost been cleared to play. And then there is Bobby Hill. The 2023 Norm Smith medallist has barely been at the club this pre-season and hasn’t returned since the Christmas break. He was granted a leave of absence on January 9 to deal with the ongoing personal issues that have stalled his career.
“We’re not putting any timelines on that,” Collingwood EGM Charlie Gardiner says inside the Glasshouse cafe. “We’ll support him until he gets himself right and we’re confident he’s doing the work that he needs to do.”
Collingwood will enter 2026 with the oldest (25.6 years) and most experienced (94.7 games) squad in the competition for the second year in a row, but the gap between them and the rest isn’t as wide as last year after the departures of premiership veterans Brody Mihocek, Tom Mitchell, Mason Cox, and Will Hoskin-Elliott. The group is younger, but the quality of the youth is still up for debate ahead of 2026.
Ned Long was the big bonus last year, becoming a permanent fixture in his first full season at the club to finish ninth in the Copeland Trophy. Nick Daicos was the only other player under 25 to finish in the top 10. Collingwood has a strong core in the 25-30 bracket led by Brayden Maynard, Jordan De Goey, Josh Daicos, and Pat Lipinski, but need the likes of first-round picks Ed Allan and Harry DeMattia to take the next step. Collingwood reached the penultimate weekend of last season, but where is the improvement coming from in 2026?
Maynard is finally over the lingering issues with his foot that have ground him down mentally over the past three years. “My foot’s been the best it’s been through any sort of pre-season or off-season over the last three years. So I’m feeling really good and I’m ready to attack it,” Maynard says when we sit down to chat in a quiet room after training.
“It was a headf***,” he said. “Like it was really, really frustrating at times and tested my patience because I was able to get through the pain and play, but it was just lingering.”
Maynard turns 30 in September and is more aware than ever of his football mortality. This time last year he was out of contract and being pursued by North Melbourne. He ultimately chose legacy over extra dollars in his bank account to re-sign at Collingwood for four more years. “It is a lot of money,” he confesses. “But I’m loyal and that means a lot to me. It was an easy decision in the end, it just wouldn’t have sat right with me if I went anywhere else.”
After exploring recruiting and coaching during his time at Collingwood, Maynard has just come to the realisation what he wants to do when footy ends. And it doesn’t involve the game. He has worked with Collingwood welfare managers Alex Agrotis and Brady Grey to get the ball rolling. “I really love the producing side of music and what it brings because every time I listen to music, it brings me joy and happiness,” he says.
Everyone from the club is welcome to join the ‘Side by Side meeting’. When the music stops, Craig McRae has a handful of fan mail to deliver. The usual suspects receive a piece of paper from the coach: Nick Daicos, Jamie Elliott, Darcy Moore. Draftee Sam Swadling has received a letter, too. The West Australian’s pre-season has been eye-catching with a debut on the cards in 2026. The room roars when Isaac Quaynor starts his by reading out ‘Q you are my top three fave player’.
There is a reason McRae has started the meeting on this note. He wants to bring the fans on the journey. The coach has told this story to his players before: he met the player he idolised at 18 and the guy was a ‘douchebag’. “If you get the chance at training, stop for the photo, stop to sign the jumper,” he encourages his players. McRae does this himself after every press conference, posing for 20-30 photos until everyone leaves happy. The little things matter.
The next slide appears with photos of Beau McCreery, Oscar Steene, Jakob Ryan, Charlie West, Harvey Harrison, and Noah Howes all wearing the South Australian jumper. There is a grainy photo of Brayden Maynard as a kid. He was drafted out of the Sandringham Dragons and Hampton Rovers but was born in Adelaide and lived there in his early years. Before McRae became a triple premiership player at Brisbane, he represented South Australia in the last game of Origin football for that state in 1999. He loved the reprisal the previous weekend and hasn’t forgotten that he grew up in the seaside Adelaide suburb of O’Sullivan Beach and wants to see South Australia back on this stage. McRae, clearly, would love to see his state feature next year.
Nick Daicos, Darcy Cameron, and Jarrod Wade are summoned to the front of the room to share their experiences from Origin. The image of Daicos as a kid with Patrick Dangerfield during his days at Adelaide sums up the experience for the son of a gun. Cameron grew up idolising Dean Cox when the six-time All-Australian ruckman was dominating for West Coast, so to get play under the Sydney coach for Western Australia was a career highlight.
Looking Ahead
McRae has met with every first-year player across the afternoon. His diary has been jampacked. But others queue patiently outside his door just before 4 pm. The football department is still a hive of activity when he is answering the questions that need to be resolved and grabs his backpack to leave. He wants to practice what he preaches in the pre-season by being out when he is done. That will ensure others follow his lead, rather than lingering. On the way out the door, Collingwood’s GM of communications and content, Nadine Rabah, informs the coach that they’ve almost sold out of the ‘Fly’ puffer jacket. Almost a thousand gone in four days. More are on the way.
It’s time to tackle the traffic on the West Gate Bridge. It’s not quite peak hour, but it’s building. There is more than enough time to find out how much longer he can do this for. McRae never set out to be a senior coach when he retired after the 2004 Grand Final loss to Port Adelaide, but like many from that Brisbane three-peat, Leigh Matthews left his
