Analysis A journey back in time to 1 Sept 2021

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We’re going back to 1st Sept 2021 and Craig McRae has just been appointed Senior Coach of the Collingwood Football Club …

This is the Fox AFL360 coverage of the announcement. Grab a cold beer and some popcorn and let’s see how well it has aged (Spoiler alert, Craig McRae hasn’t aged well, clearly being Senior Coach of a successful footy club has its stresses)

 

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I liked Riewoldt’s Carlton drive-by: [about managing expectations] “It’s a very clever start, it’s the antithesis of Carlton who have put on the agenda ‘it’s finals or bust’ before they’ve even appointed a coach”.
 
McRae did some I never thought possible.
No, it wasn’t winning a Premiership, I believe that’s achievable every season.
No it was something much more surprising than that. McRae made oppo supporters enjoy watching us play! Even barrack for us on occasion.
Bloody miracle.
 
We’re going back to 1st Sept 2021 and Craig McRae has just been appointed Senior Coach of the Collingwood Football Club …

This is the Fox AFL360 coverage of the announcement. Grab a cold beer and some popcorn and let’s see how well it has aged (Spoiler alert, Craig McRae hasn’t aged well, clearly being Senior Coach of a successful footy club has its stresses)



Great post. Thx. 👍
 
It's just incredible what he's done.
I remember going to a game in late 2021 and being shocked by how poor we were. Whately and Reiwoldt are talking about a rebuild here, coming 3rd and 1st the next two years was out of the question.
Brilliant coach, just amazing.

Fly is a brilliant coach, but our success is a ‘whole of club’ achievement. The coaching assistants, football department, club administrators, the board - and don’t forget Jarrod Wade! - all came together to achieve this outcome in a remarkably short time.

From the outside it looks like egos were set aside for the greater good.

Even Wright thought we needed a rebuild when he arrived at the club at the start of 2021 (read that somewhere).

Perhaps Fly’s greatest work is not so visible to us - how he ‘influenced’ the club into better ways. From what we know of him, that may have been subtle, even gentle, but highly effective.

He’s a remarkable leader, and landed at our club at just the right time to wrangle a flag out of an ageing group. And yet we also have a good crop of younger players. N Daicos being the other remarkable addition to our club in the Fly ‘era’.

I’m rambling but I can’t help hoping we have entered a new golden age.😍
 
Fly is a brilliant coach, but our success is a ‘whole of club’ achievement. The coaching assistants, football department, club administrators, the board - and don’t forget Jarrod Wade! - all came together to achieve this outcome in a remarkably short time.

From the outside it looks like egos were set aside for the greater good.

Even Wright thought we needed a rebuild when he arrived at the club at the start of 2021 (read that somewhere).

Perhaps Fly’s greatest work is not so visible to us - how he ‘influenced’ the club into better ways. From what we know of him, that may have been subtle, even gentle, but highly effective.

He’s a remarkable leader, and landed at our club at just the right time to wrangle a flag out of an ageing group. And yet we also have a good crop of younger players. N Daicos being the other remarkable addition to our club in the Fly ‘era’.

I’m rambling but I can’t help hoping we have entered a new golden age.😍
It's a bit like a tear in fabric, there are strands connecting the tear but they are frail and weak. What fly did was stitch that tear up to make it hole again and not having to hang on to strands of fabric to keep the tear together
 
The club has made some superb decisions in the last 2 season,s, probably McRae,s the best but a whole raft of 1st class choices from drafting,coaching,football moves to fitness staff. As others have said probably the last 2 yrs have been the most enjoyable for a long long time.

We may not have the best list but we proved last yr we had the best team we are proving we have good coaching group superb fitness staff and very well led club and team. All in all every part is well covered to have continued success and I am more confident than other times that we will be able to compete with them all on a level footing then our great support to get us over the line in the close one,s. Go the Pies.
 
16 coaches in 132 years is a wonderful tribute to our stability. Is that the least number of coaches amongst the 12 VFL clubs?

Having the greatest coach of all time lead us for 37 years would be a significant factor.

(For perspective, imagine if Leigh Matthews was still our coach today - that’s what 37 years would look like)
 
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Analysis A journey back in time to 1 Sept 2021

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