Jeremy Howe OK as Magpies' finals hopes shaken
McRae admitted his team was 'rocked' by Jeremy Howe's sickening concussion in the opening minutes, and while concerned at how disorganised the backline looked without Howe, he refused to use the star defender's absence as an excuse.
Scans cleared Howe, who was taken to hospital, of any further damage and the club confirmed he was home and 'recovering well' but would enter concussion protocols with a return to play unclear.
Jeremy Howe was involved in a sickening collision. Picture:Howe's loss came as the Magpies suffered a fourth loss from the past five matches and, concerningly, all of those defeats have been against top-eight teams.
After sitting 10 points clear on top of the ladder a mere five weeks ago, and being in first place for 11 straight rounds, they could drop to fourth by Saturday.
All of a sudden they're no guarantee of a double chance after being premiership favourites for the bulk of the season.
The usually upbeat McRae couldn't hide his devastation after what he agreed was Collingwood's worst performance of the year.
'I apologise to our Magpie Army,' he said.
'That's a disappointing performance. You can't sugarcoat that.
'We're hurting. That one really hurt. Just a lack of system and then a lack of fight, lack of effort – sometimes at the same time, which leaves us really vulnerable.
'When we get behind, we want to chase. Six goals is not enough for me for our fans to watch at home. I don't know how many kept watching right through the end.
'Your 114,000 members expect a certain amount of effort and we didn't have it.'
McRae said he needed to quickly 'glue' his team back together with just two games left before finals.
'We just had some really poor efforts at times,' he said.
'This is the reality of what we've got right now. Like I've always said to our players, nothing's permanent.
The Magpies had every right to look dejected. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images
'For a long time I don't recall us having that poor of connection … we got hurt really bad.
'We've got … 19 or 20 100-game players. They know how to play their role.
'We've got to back our system in. It's served us well and under pressure, under adversity, go back to what you know and go do your job and it's up to me to glue them together … and we take responsibility for what we did tonight.'
McRae was in 'no doubt' that his players had started thinking about outcomes rather than staying in the moment and focusing on the process.
'You can see it and I call it out when I see it,' he said.
'We come back to minutes and seconds. So we lost a few minutes and seconds tonight, but we've got to stay present to that. When you start to think outcome and expectation, then you're not doing, you're thinking.
'So you come to a stoppage and you're out of the position, we go, 'Hey, come on. What are you doing in that position?' So you start to think more than do.'
The Collingwood coach also suspected his players had started going into their shells during games, and he had a simple solution for that.
'If you're quiet, talk,' he said.
Craig McRae questioned his players' effort. Picture:'What do you do when you have confidence and have form? Just do that. 'Oh, I'm quiet when I've got no confidence' – well, then, be loud. 'I don't go for my marks' – well, go for your marks. 'I tackle when I've got confidence' – well, tackle. So they're actions, not thoughts. It's right in front of us.'
McRae said the early loss of Howe couldn't be used as an excuse for defensive disorganisation.
'Three guys flying at the one ball, spoiling at the same time, is not system, and we've worked on that all pre-season,' McRae said.
'Those things we can fix. The effort stuff I'd like to think is an anomaly.'
Despite the worrying trajectory his team is on, McRae remains supremely confident about what Collingwood can achieve this year.
'There's still lots of minutes as far as I'm aware, and we'll make the most of those,' he said.
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Daily Telegraph
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AFL news Geelong superstar Jeremy Cameron late to his own party in Cats win over Essendon
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5 hours ago
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All attention was on one man in Geelong on Friday night, but Jeremy Cameron was late to the party, in more ways than one. The Cats were too strong for the young Bombers, recording a comfortable 15.19 (109) to 10.5 (65) win, with Cameron missing some chances and finishing with 4.5 to move to 79 goals for the season. The Cats superstar came into the clash on 75 goals for the season, miles clear in the Coleman Medal race and with speculation rife he could kick the magical ton this season. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1. Cameron himself admitted pre-match there was 'too much focus' on the 100-goal chase, but it clearly wasn't phasing the man from tiny Dartmoor in southwest Victoria. The 32-year-old sheepishly admitted before the opening bounce he was 30 minutes late getting to the ground as he tended to his farm, which is around 20 minutes outside Geelong. He then kept the Fox Footy crew waiting for an interview while he took a few more warm-up shots on goal and the commentators tried desperately to fill the time. Garry Lyon and Jordan Lewis both tried to get Cameron's attention before he finally sauntered over. 'I'll see if I can grab his attention,' Lyon said. 'No, he's having another shot.' When he did arrive, they couldn't resist some gentle ribbing. 'Jezza we've been padding for five minutes,' Lyon said. Lewis then chimed in with: 'Mate the game's about to start.' Once the interview did get underway, the former GWS star was naturally asked about the pursuit of the ton. 'Too much focus I reckon,' he said. 'Everyone asks about it, pretty much everywhere you go, especially the kids and that. 'That's all good fun, but I don't take myself too seriously, sort of try to laugh it off and have fun out there with the boys and that's what I'll be doing again tonight.' When he was asked about his overall approach, Cameron was true to form when he said with a grin: 'It changes for each individual. I got here half an hour late, which was spot on for me. 'That's how I sort of approach it. I did the last check-up (at the farm), just made sure everything's OK. 'Everyone's got their own prep and from there we're pretty steely focused.' During a big build-up to a match that wasn't expected to be overly challenging for Geelong against the lowly Bombers, goalkicking great Jason Dunstall talked about the chase for the century of goals last achieved by Buddy Franklin way back in 2008. 'I think he doesn't want to think about it too much, but it's there, front of mind, make no mistake,' Dunstall said. 'When you're a goalkicker you know exactly how many you have, you know what you're chasing and he's not far away.' Boundary rider Cam Mooney then stunned everyone by picking a big key forward to kick a bag of goals … only it wasn't Cameron. 'I think that man right there is going to be the man tonight,' Mooney said as the camera panned to another big Geelong forward, Shannon Neale. 'He might kick the bag. It's not going to be Jeremy Cameron, I'm sorry guys, it's going to be this man, Shannon Neale. 'Everyone's going to be too interested in stopping Jezza.' Mooney proved he's somewhat of a Nostradamus as Neale duly kicked the first three goals of the game over the opening 12 minutes. 'Shannon Neale came in as the support act, but he has grabbed the early running,' Gerard Whateley said 10 minutes into the game. 'Two goals for Neale.' Two minutes later, Neale had his third and Lyon quipped: 'I don't know if Cam Mooney's got the Tatts Lotto numbers, I tell you what.' 'The count is on,' Whateley added. 'Just not the count we were expecting.' It took until six minutes into the second term for Cameron to finally get his chase moving. He took a contested mark on a tight angle and had no issue stepping back and slotting goal No. 76 for the year. 'Jeremy Cameron, it's such a beautiful kick, and that's the rise the crowd was looking for,' Whateley said. Four minutes later he kicked his second from another contested mark with Mooney saying: 'Listen to the crowd.' Anthony Hudson then stated: 'For a career-best 77 goals, he was late to the game and late to get started, but he's off and running now Jeremy Cameron. 'That is two.' That 77th goal was one clear of his previous best, the 76 he kicked for the Giants back in 2019. The Cats took a 27-point lead into the halftime break and Hudson said: 'Eyes will turn again to Jeremy Cameron in the second half.' Instead, another key forward started to make his mark on the contest. Bombers youngster Liam McMahon managed one goal in each of the first two quarters and then two more in the third as the 23-year-old continued to give long-suffering Essendon fans some hope for the future. 'Jeremy who?' Hudson said when McMahon slotted his fourth. The Bombers closed to within three goals in a surprisingly competitive second half without really threatening to pull off the massive upset. Cameron was able to flex his muscles in front of goal in the final term, kicking two goals in a four-minute period to move to 79. He had another chance in the dying minutes. 'You felt like he had to get to 80 tonight to be a legit chance,' Whateley added. 'Not just a 'let's talk it up chance'.' But he pushed the shot across goal, with Dunstall saying glumly: 'Come on Jez.' The Cameron watch will now move to Sydney for the Cats' match against the Swans next week.
