COLLINGWOOD coach Craig McRae is adamant the Magpies can recapture the scintillating form that has led to them sitting on top of the ladder for all but one round since round seven ahead of September, despite dropping a third loss in the past month on Friday night.
The Magpies only conceded 100 points twice in the first 20 rounds of 2023 – and just twice across 25 games in McRae’s first season in charge – but have now leaked triple figures three games in succession, after conceding 93 points against Carlton at the start of this patchy run in round 20.
Brisbane registered 124 points at Marvel Stadium on Friday night – the most against Collingwood under McRae’s watch – to defeat the Magpies by 24 points and extend the race for top spot into the final round of the home and away season next weekend.
“It is exactly what I put on the board, actually. 124 points. It is going to be hard to score 125 points. I think the last four or five weeks we’ve conceded too many goals, too many points. (We’ve been the) number one defensive team in the competition for most of the year but we’ve lost that mantle the last couple of weeks,” McRae said post-game on Friday night.
“We’re not happy with the way we’re defending the ground. Opposition are certainly trying to keep the ball off us at times. We’ll get to work on this and find out exactly why. We’ve got time to work on it, we’re not finished yet.
“I love to think in a growth mindset. If you think in a fixed mindset, oh you’re done. This is not permanent; we’re going to get better at this. We’ll shine a light on this part of our game. Will it take more than one week to get this part of our game right? I’m not sure. But we’ll be working hard to make sure the opposition don’t kick 124 points.”
MAGPIES v LIONS Full match coverage and stats
Nathan Murphy finished the game on the bench after crashing to the ground in the second half, but the key defender is believed to have escaped injury and should be available for next Friday night’s game against Essendon at the MCG.
Jakob Ryan won’t be available for selection after the 18-year-old entered the AFL’s concussion protocols after copping a knee to the back of his head late in the second quarter.
“It’s unfortunate. The young lad gets a knee in the back of the head and he has concussion so he’ll be in the protocols. It’s disappointing, isn’t it? His family is here, it’s a big occasion, unfortunately he didn’t get to finish the game,” McRae said.
McRae expects Jordan De Goey (glute) and Bobby Hill (hamstring) to face the Bombers in the final Friday night game of the season.
“I’d be pretty confident in those guys,” he said.
“If this was a final they would have been playing. We’re not being conservative but there is a risk-reward attached to it. They are not 100 per cent fit to play. Maybe Jordy could have played tomorrow but he wasn’t fit to play tonight. Again they need to get through training and do what’s required.”
Chris Fagan has now coached 149 home and away games since becoming a senior coach at the age of 55, but arguably none have been more important than Friday night given the win all but seals a top-two spot and two home finals next month, paving the best possible route to the Grand Final.
“I know the game was talked up this week that this was like a Grand Final for the Lions. It is up there (as the best home and away win) because it is a hard task to come here and play them. They are a great team. Even though they had a few out, they had nothing to lose either,” Fagan said after the match.
“It was a high-pressure game; a high-stakes game. I just like the way we went at the game in the last quarter; we’ve been scratchy in last quarters in recent weeks. We knew at three-quarter time we were going to finish top-four, we just didn’t want to go back into our shells. I thought the players did a good job.”
Just like Collingwood, Brisbane finished the game two men down on the bench with Cal Ah Chee subbed out with a back injury after a heavy knock, before Lincoln McCarthy exited the game late with calf tightness.
“I think Cal’s is more like a back spasm, according to the medical people. Linc has a tight calf, so it was just a call by our doctors not to damage it any further. We don’t know if there is a strain there or not, but certainly not too bad,” he said.
At 62, Fagan is the oldest senior coach in the AFL, someone who has been around the game for four decades. Bt not even the veteran coach has seen a player run around for two minutes with no guernsey on, which is what happened when Deven Robertson’s jumper was torn off and he kept playing rather than coming off the ground.
“I haven’t seen it before. I wasn’t sure what the rule was. I thought he had to come off the ground or someone had to get a jumper out to him pretty quickly, neither happened,” he said.
“I suppose if I had the build Deven Robertson’s got, I would be pretty happy running around for a couple of minutes with no top on. I’m sure that those who like that sort of thing in the audience would have liked it too.”
Brisbane hosts St Kilda at the Gabba next Saturday afternoon, where the Lions are undefeated in 2023, winning all 10 home games.
