Senior Coach Craig McRae has addressed the media ahead of his side’s Round 11 clash with Waalitj Marawar (West Coast Eagles) this Saturday.

McRae spoke about the feeling inside the Club during SP433 week, touched on some big names available for selection, and celebrated Dan Houston ahead of his 200th game.

Embracing SP433 week

“I’ve never been part of anything like this. The game has a way of wanting to celebrate the greats in our game and we’ve done it really well historically,” McRae said.

“This is our time now and to have someone at Collingwood play this many games and to be the games record holder is something we won’t walk past.

“This is a great occasion and there’s a different energy in the building definitely.

“The best way we can celebrate and honour Pendles is by playing well.

“We’re dialling in really deep to that and making sure we’re well in tune with what we need to manage with West Coast and their strengths.

“We’ll put on a good show for our fans and then celebrate Pendles in the best way possible.”

The selection table

“They’ll be fit and available,” he said of Darcy Moore and Pat Lipinski.

“There’s a good list of magnets to pick from this week – Darcy Cameron as well.

“Selection’s going to be difficult … there’s going to be some players that have been playing some good footy that will miss out.

“Tim Membrey will be available.”

Dan Houston’s 200th

“We celebrate. It’s Dan Houston’s 200th this week which sort of got missed,” he said.

“We want to make sure those little things don’t get missed because they’re big achievements."

On West Coast’s strengths

“We won’t be taking West Coast lightly, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Pressure was enormous – you watch their last game, I saw Mini talk about their pressure in the last quarter was over three – I’ve never seen that, he’d never seen that. That’s an enormous stat of pressure.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re ready and aware for that – we put that in front of the players this morning.”