Senior Coach Craig McRae has addressed the media ahead of his side’s Round 12 clash with the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.
McRae paid tribute to Neale Daniher, touched on the state of some of the Pies’ injured players, and spoke about how to nullify the Bulldogs this weekend.
A tribute to Neale Daniher
“What an incredible man. He left a huge legacy,” McRae said.
“To Bec and the family, we’ve got a strong relationship privately with my own family’s struggles so I can’t thank the Daniher family enough for their support around our own journey.
“To the broader footy community he’s just left a huge army behind him that we just probably hand over the baton for us to carry now and continue the incredible work he’s done.
“Melbourne and us are going to get together for lunch next week and celebrate the legacy that he left.
“Every time he’d come into our room he’d always have this positive smile and even when the words stopped, he always had an energy about him.
“We’re very grateful to have been part of that and it’s up to us now to pass the baton on to others.”
Jamie Elliott and Darcy Moore updates
“I’m surprised how positive he has been, he was on crutches in the building today and he has an operation on Tuesday,” he said of Elliott.
“It’s heartbreaking, he’s a guy who’s a bit of a spiritual leader amongst our forwards and the wider broader group.
“To see him go down, my heart sank, I’m sure all our fans’ did because he’s a fan favourite … he’s going to try play some part for the rest of the year which we’ll look forward to getting him involved in things.
“It’s been a frustrating year for him (Moore) to get on the paddock.
“We don’t know the extent of the time out, we’ll get that right.
“Clearly we need to do something different because what we’re doing right now is giving his body feedback that he’s not capable of doing it at the level which is required.”
Mid-season draft arrivals
“We’ve actually targeted those players according to the players that have gone out,” he said about mid-season draftees Harrison Coe, Mitch Podhajski and Liam Puncher.
“Oscar’s out, we get a ruck (Coe), Jamie’s out, we get a forward that’s leading the VFL goal-kicking (Podhajski) and we lost Reef and we get a key back from Adelaide (Puncher).
“I like setting up people to be successful, that’s always been a motto since when I was a development coach, and it hasn’t changed.
“We’ve got to get those guys in our system and make them feel like they’re Collingwood people before we throw them in the deep end, but I’m not afraid to do that.”
Coming up against the Bulldogs
“Contest, clearance, aggressive with the ball, players run forward of the play to name a few,” he said of the Bulldogs strengths.
“We’ve got great respect for the way they’re going about it, very similar to us they’ve got a couple of players out, but it should be a really good contest.
“They’ve got many that can stress you if you let them.”
