Beau McCreery was stressed at half-time on Friday night. He hadn't touched the ball or laid a tackle against Melbourne. Collingwood was down and he was worried. But he shouldn't have been. He has proven he doesn't need many chances to make an impact.
The 21-year-old has become as close to a cornerback as there is in the AFL, playing a role that almost has more in common with Jalen Ramsey, the Super Bowl-winning superstar from the Los Angeles Rams, than with teammate Jack Ginnivan.
McCreery is in Craig McRae's team to not only chase, corral and create turnovers, but also inflict pain when he gets the chance. Just ask Steven May, who copped a bone crunching McCreery tackle last Friday night.
While the seven-point win over Melbourne will be remembered for Brayden Maynard's vicious tackles on Ed Langdon and Alex Neal-Bullen, and Jamie Elliott's chase down tackles that resulted in goals, McCreery's performance will have generated just as much praise inside the AIA Centre.
The South Australian laid seven tackles after half-time and finished with 43 forward half pressure points – the equal-most on the ground with Elliott – amassing 24 forward half pressure points in the fourth quarter alone – 11 more than the next best – to show why he has become so valuable to the Magpies.
"It's a bloody tough role at times. I was stressing out at half-time. I don't think I'd touched the ball and don't think I'd laid any tackles, so I was pretty worried," McCreery told AFL.com.au after the win last Friday night.
"But Fly is great with me. He knows it's a tough role and knows you're in and out of the game a lot. Sometimes you get caught on the fat side.
"Everyone is so positive for me to keep my head up and just keep chasing, just keep tackling. In the second half I marked one in the goalsquare and just went from there. It's a tough role but it pays off sometimes."
Some inside the Collingwood Football Club who watch the NFL closely see similarities between McCreery and those superstars who defend wide receivers and running backs. The moments matter more than the numbers.
McCreery lifts more in line with NFL locker rooms than AFL clubs – he bench pressed 140kgs during the pre-season, behind only Brodie Grundy and Jordan De Goey at Collingwood – and has become a player that opposition players fear.
Only seven general forwards average more pressure points per game in 2022 – Neal-Bullen, Sam Switkowski, Nick Holman, Dylan Moore, Elliott, Dan Butler and Jamie Cripps – than McCreery, according to Champion Data.
This isn't new. Before McCreery was terrorising AFL opposition every weekend, he was doing the same thing in the SANFL for South Adelaide. He played juniors at Glenelg before moving to the Panthers ahead of 2020, when he led the competition for inside 50 tackles, before the Magpies swooped with pick No.44 in the NAB AFL Draft at the end of that year.
"It was pretty much the exact same role," McCreery said.
"My coach Jarrad Wright used to just say your role is to just chase and tackle like crazy. Just run, run like crazy. If you get caught out he was still pretty happy with me even if I didn't get there because he knew I was working hard to get to the next one."
Only a few clubs showed genuine interest in McCreery ahead of that draft. West Coast was keen, but neither of the South Australian sides were. Collingwood didn't reveal its true intentions until the pick was submitted, but it saw enough moments in the finals series to pull the trigger on the pressure forward from Cove.
While McCreery is getting a game at the moment based on his pressure – he ranked No.12 in the AFL for forward 50 tackles and No.19 for forward half pressure points – but there is a confidence internally that he can become someone who can kick 30 goals a season, just like Elliott has done four times across his 150-game career.
After playing 13 games under Nathan Buckley and Robert Harvey in 2021, McCreery has played 17 of 20 in year two under McRae, improving at such a rate – like Ginnivan – that has helped Collingwood rocket from a 17th-place finish last year to second with two games to play.
"It is unbelievable, especially coming from where we were last year to this point. We keep coming every week, following the same process and getting it done. It's unreal," he said.
Collingwood has raided the SANFL for mature-age talent in recent years, with three mid-season recruits featuring in the win over Melbourne – John Noble (West Adelaide), Ash Johnson (Sturt) and Josh Carmichael (West Adelaide) – and not looking like handing back their spots in the 22 any time soon.
It was all about Johnson at the MCG in round 21 after the 24-year-old slotted four goals in just his fourth game, under the searing pressure of primetime football, taking him to 10 goals from his first month of senior football.
"He is just unreal. I played against him in the SANFL. I don't know if he knew who I was, but I definitely knew who he was," he said.
"Just the way he flies and attacks the ball, he is just elite. It is so good seeing what he is doing right now."
McCreery signed a meat pie at Optus Stadium at the start of this winning streak, weeks after signing the new two-year deal his management, Deliver Sports, negotiated with the club to keep him in black and white until the end of 2024.
He lives in a house in Chadstone with Isaac Chugg, Arlo Draper and Carmichael, where he tinkers with an old Ford Falcon and motorbikes in his spare time. McRae is constantly tinkering with his best 22. But right now, McCreery – the tackling machine from Adelaide – is in there.
