Collingwood Senior Coach Craig McRae addressed the media on Tuesday morning ahead of his side’s Round Two clash with St. Kilda on Thursday night.

As the Pies head into their third game of the 2024 season, McRae spoke to the team’s resilience as they seek their first win of the year, as well as their ability to get back to work and improve aspects of their game.

The team’s resilience

“It’s enormous (the team’s resilience), that’s the facts,” McRae said.

“If we are a little bit behind on the scoreboard it doesn’t matter, we’ll keep fighting.

“We actually like that no one is really talking about that we’re finishing games off okay, because that will be there when we get the scoreboard a bit closer.

“Our fight is still there, it’s just about managing the scoreboard a bit in other areas so everyone can see the fight is still there.”

Getting back to work at training

“We’re getting back to work here on things we know we can fix really quickly, I think that’s important to say,” McRae said.

“With all the things going on in the world, there’s a lot of stuff that’s still going well and we want to maintain that.

“We don’t need to be perfect, it’s actually something we’re really proud of when we’re not and we accept and embrace the imperfections of the game and have some fun doing it.

“You walk in here on Sunday and the place was buzzing. There’s an energy to get better and I must admit there was an energy to get better all of last year too so there’s nothing changing there.

“Stay true Collingwood supporters, we’ll turn this around at some stage I guarantee you of that.”

Taking on two top sides to start the season

“It’s definitely a gift because we get to see where we are at against good opposition and parts of our game that we need to improve,” McRae said.

“I’m sure at some stage this year we’ll look back and go ‘gee that was important that we went through that as a group’.

“Nothing’s easy in this world, life’s hard, and we actually like the challenges of what that brings.

“This group is very determined to improve and we’re not standing still here, we’re still trying to grow and improve.

What St. Kilda will bring this week

“We can only control what we can, and we don’t know what St. Kilda are going to bring this week other than a fierce, competitive, defensive game,” McRae said.

“It could be a struggle, a lot of numbers back parking the bus, so we have to fight through that.

“We set ourselves up each week to perform well, coaches and players, and go give them our best.

Personnel changes

“I think there will be some change, to what degree we’re not sure or what the best balance is in terms of what’s coming up with St. Kilda and the way that they play,” McRae said.

“Do we need taller players or more mobile players; we’ll wait and see what it looks like but there’ll be some change."

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