Player Watch Beau McCreery

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Sounds a lot like he's in for some midfield minutes this week.
 

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eyeroller said:
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Only just watched that and was biting my tongue.
Now found out he’s been fined $2k for the whack.
Thought he might be, unnecessary when he can use the bump just as effectively.
 
“Make smart decisions, don’t do anything stupid and don’t fall off.”
It’s good advice for most life situations, and it’s the mantra of Beau McCreery when he is pursuing his true sporting love.


No, not football. Motocross.

While the Collingwood forward is making an excellent fist of his career with the Sherrin, if he’d had his way it would have been flying on wheels rather than bulldozing into defenders.

It was a passion he developed through his youth in Adelaide and hasn’t dimmed since he headed to Melbourne after being drafted by the Magpies at the end of 2020.

Clearly it would be a bit safer if his pastime was something more like table tennis or bocce, but McCreery hasn’t kicked the habit. He just makes sure to be careful when he still takes to the bike.

His partner has a property in Melbourne’s outer Northern suburbs where the two of them have been building a few jumps.

“That was always my hobby. I never got to race because racing was always on the weekend, and I was always a little bit better at footy than I was motocross,” McCreery says.

“I always said if I was as good at motocross as I am footy, I’d probably choose that.

“I’ve got three bikes that I still ride as much as I can. Obviously during the season it’s a bit hard. I don’t want to get injured. I do it as much as I can. It’s an outlet from footy, it’s another passion, I just love it.”

In reality, any bumps and bruises he could get on the bike would pale in comparison to the knocks he could get playing footy the way he does. McCreery has developed a cult following at the Pies and with good reason. His tackling pressure is already among the best in the competition for a player in his position.

A McCreery tackle is harder to get out of than a parking fine.

“To get someone holding the ball is pretty much as good as kicking a goal,” McCreery says.

The 21-year-old’s bench-pressing feats have turned heads inside the club. How did he develop this extraordinary upper body strength?

Time working as a landscape labourer in South Australia helped.

But perhaps most of all it was older brother Jake.

“I was always the tall lanky kid that could run pretty well. But having an older brother that’s quite big, I always got pushed around a bit by him, so he got me in the gym.”

If you’d asked Beau in his younger years which McCreery brother was most likely to make the AFL, it would have been Jake.

Three years older than Beau, Jake was an excellent junior footballer with Glenelg and had been in draft calculations.

“He played most state [under] 16s,” Beau says.

“He was the under-18 Glenelg captain. From what I knew he was killing it. But then he broke his foot and unfortunately he didn’t quite make it. That put a bit of doubt in my head that I’d ever make it, because I always looked up to him.”

So with his brother’s dream dashed, Beau also pulled the pin on the pathway, going to play local footy at Hallett Cove.

“I wasn’t really enjoying my footy in under-16s, I just wanted to go and have some fun, play with my mates. Which helped me a lot. Looking back the smarter thing would have been staying at SANFL, but having the break, have some fun, made me fall in love with the game again.

“I was playing local footy up until 18, just with my mates.”

The year Beau turned draft eligible, 2019, he gave the SANFL another chance, moving to South Adelaide.

“I was injured a fair bit, probably wasn’t up to standard,” he says of that season.

“The next year I was 19, and I said if I don’t play league footy this year consistently I’ll pull the pin on footy. But I stuck with it, played every game but one and then found myself at Collingwood.”

It is far from a typical journey, but McCreery is thriving. He is averaging more than six tackles per game over the last six rounds, playing an important if somewhat under-the-radar role in a Magpies side that has won eight matches straight to be an unlikely top four challenger. Jack Ginnivan and Nick Daicos make the headlines from the Pies’ younger brigade, but McCreery is heart and soul.

He has played 27 AFL matches so far, impressive considering a raft of soft injuries that have befallen him; a calf and hamstring last year and then a hip flexor earlier this year. He had never been injured as a junior and he suggests that it was a steep learning curve for his body to cope with the intensity of the professional game.


“We obviously looked into it a bit deeper with things like diet, recovery, more professionalism it came down to at the end of the day. Even routine before a game. I’ve learnt a lot since before I got drafted,” he says.

“I’m doing a lot better than what I was.”

His culinary weakness?

“I’d say chicken parmi, but over here it’s parma apparently. That was probably my downfall.”

While the SA dialect dies hard, McCreery is settled in Melbourne. Having extended his contract with the club until the end of 2024, he is living with fellow interstate recruits Isaac Chugg, Arlo Draper and Josh Carmichael.

He is now Collingwood through and through.

“It was a shaky start moving interstate but I’ve got a partner here, I’ve got a great group of mates and I love it here at Collingwood with all the boys. I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere else.”

He’s even managed to convert his inspiration, Jake. In a way, Beau says, he is experiencing an AFL career for two.

“He was a Port supporter but now he absolutely loves Collingwood. He knows probably more about Collingwood than I do. He’s my No.1 supporter,” Beau says of his brother.

“My brother’s my best mate. I always looked up to him, I always wanted to be like him. AFL was always his dream. When he didn’t quite make it, it was tough. We never really thought I was going to make it.

“He’s absolutely over the moon now. He’s going to be with me the whole way.”
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Donuts at HT. Zero possessions, zero tackles.

Fly said post game he ended up having more pressure acts in a 5 minute burst in the last quarter than what other players had for the whole game. Also kicked an important goal for us in the third.

With guys like Johnson and Ginnivan in our forward line who aren’t as manic in their defensive pressure, we need Beau in there.

He’s going to be so integral to us in September. Finals football is made for guys like him. Can’t wait to see it.
 
When he kicked that goal in the third, my mate said ‘McCreery has finally turned up’. It was about when we started to up the pressure and get on top.

He’s a bit like a bellwether for us: ‘something that leads or indicates a trend’.

He’s been turning up in the second half, and in last quarters, when we need him.
 
Vicky Park said:
When he kicked that goal in the third, my mate said ‘McCreery has finally turned up’. It was about when we started to up the pressure and get on top.

He’s a bit like a bellwether for us: ‘something that leads or indicates a trend’.

He’s been turning up in the second half, and in last quarters, when we need him.
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He needs to turn up for the whole game, he's becoming a cameo player
 
PieLebo87 said:
Donuts at HT. Zero possessions, zero tackles.

Fly said post game he ended up having more pressure acts in a 5 minute burst in the last quarter than what other players had for the whole game. Also kicked an important goal for us in the third.

With guys like Johnson and Ginnivan in our forward line who aren’t as manic in their defensive pressure, we need Beau in there.

He’s going to be so integral to us in September. Finals football is made for guys like him. Can’t wait to see it.
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Can I just sat that not every forward has to be a manic pressure psycho, ginni applies just as much as does elliott. He needs to add a few more strings to his BEAU
 

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Player Watch Beau McCreery

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