Definitely the best team in the comp at the moment and their flag to lose. Unless other teams like Melbourne and Geelong are “slow burning” their way through the season so they are playing their best footy at the pointy end of the season, Collingwood have both of them covered in my opinion.
Never underestimate the power of the wobble.
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Pies just need Grand final in October and they will be fine.
They’ll make the gf I reckon. Should make those of you that supported them in last year’s prelim happy.
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Maybe it’s optimism, but l think they are definitely gettable. at the moment no one is near them but I reckon they’re not as good as some of the premiers of the last few years.
I mean they won against Adelaide by a point like two weeks ago
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I think they are gettable. It’s whether they have the fitness to go through a season with the high intensity swarm game plan.
I don’t rate them as the best team. They playing a very attacking style of footy but are easy to score against, it won’t stand up in finals. Of note they have only beaten the Cats, who were very gettable at the start of the year. Lost to Brisbane and would get cleaned up by Melbourne when they eventually play them. Will probably finish in the 4, but I have Lions, cats and demons well ahead of them
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Agree. The Pies are unique along teams in their singular ability to find new and novel ways to shoot themselves in the foot when playing GFs. They have lost the most GFs by a huge margin. At the moment they look great and are playing superb footy, but the GF is not played in May.
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Aside from big big sound, gotta love the gws social media/cheer squad team
They always call the bin chickens south melbourne. Now this from the weekend.
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We should get Beau McCreery’s Mum, Julie down to the Hangar for training 
Way too much feel good stuff coming out of collinwood 
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Hopefully it falls in a heap come finals straight sets exit would be great or even better they make it to a GF and lose
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I caught up with a good friend of mine recently who now works at the Pies but who has previously worked for Essendon and Geelong. Seeing as she has experienced a diverse range of club cultures, I asked her in her opinion, what makes a good club culture and what makes Collingwood’s appear to be so strong. She was very clear on the senior coach being enormously responsible for the culture at each club. She said that McCrae has the players eating out of his hands and that he treats all the staff incredibly well. Basically everyone feels valued and motivated, whether you’re the best player on the list or the canteen staff.
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I have thought some of his stuff is too lovey dovey, but it seems to be working.
he also seems adaptable to change in thinking and action.
two things that have stood out to me.
his early season handling of ginnie last year with all the flak the kid was copping, mentioned he asked his wife about it cos he wasn’t sure about it all, and just mentioned to him that’s apart of todays youth, and rolled with it.
on cox’s podcast after anzac say he mentioned before the game mccrae mentioned that there’s gonna be a stuff up today, at some point that’s so horrendous, but you just gotta put it behind you smile and move on, easy to say pre game, then you see the footage of everyone even mccrae smiling when 20 odd points down when maynard does that shank of a kick to weed for a goal.
I’d say his biggest asset is his authenticity that what he says he means, hence the opinion above.
compare that to us and scott, altho he says a lot of things right (so did rutten, worsfold etc) he still does a lot of things that are contradictory to the message.
I could name at least 10 players who i’d say didn’t feel valued or necessarily motivated to do their best.
mass being the obvious one, you compare how his supposed poor game was handled by the coach compared to hepps and they are polar opposite.
you generally hear a similar message across all good coaches and managers and that, and it’s generally the coach is great at man management (or like i like to say, ego management).
even if they are no.40 on the list of relevance, you have to be making them feel like they are always in with a chance of being in the starting 22, and if they do get in their, then they will perform the role required of them.
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That’s all good and well.
But when does he deliver a blast?
I’ve heard you need it to maintain high standards…
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I remember talking to Damien Cupido once and he said the biggest difference between Sheedy and Leigh Matthews was that Matthews had very little to do with the fringe or 2nds players, while Sheedy was a lot more inclusive.
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I know you’re being facetious here and playing on the Nino thing but apparently he can definitely eyeball players and speak quite directly and plainly when required. The playing with a smile and making things fun aspect isn’t to the point where he’s a pushover. But whatever he is doing he seems to have the balance right. Unfortunately.
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No doubt tough discussions are had.
In any organisation.
But it’s very easy to have those tough discussions when things are going well, when things aren’t it’s a lot more delicate.
And the downside result is far more likely than the upside result.
As noted in your post, when the person is well motivated and respected you get better responses and results.
It’s not ‘moddle coddling’. It’s just not being excessively aggressive with what you are trying to communicate.