Collingwood coach Craig McRae has made a host of admissions around where his Magpies went wrong in their 54-point defeat at the hands of Geelong.
But he wouldn’t tolerate a particular criticism of Nick Daicos’ performance in the heavy fadeout loss on Saturday night.
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Fronting up after his side’s equal-biggest defeat of the year – after trailing by just 10 points at half-time – McRae lamented multiple failings in what were tame celebrations of Scott Pendlebury’s games record-equalling match.
“There are a few areas where we’ve got work to do – centre bounce continues to be a major concern for us,” he told reporters on Saturday night.
“Six goals (allowed from the source) tonight is just not at the level against teams like Geelong – we just can’t afford to have that … there’s a little bit of inability to stop scoring out of that source.”
Collingwood entered Saturday night dead last in the competition for centre clearances, with McRae conceding to Fox Footy pre-game it was “no doubt a part of our game that’s not quite where it needs to be”.
The premiership coach was also disappointed with his side’s back-half set-up, after going into the game ranked third in the competition for defending scores.
“I thought we were just completely challenged around our defensive system. It was the first time this year we really got challenged around our mechanics of that,” McRae continued.
“(Geelong) took over 20 marks inside 50, (which) suggests that we’re not defending that area as good as we can … (last week) we kept a really good opposition (Hawthorn) from scoring, tonight was just the opposite of that.”
Pinpointing the source of the defensive issues, McRae said: “There were just so many breakdowns.
“And again, obviously well done to Geelong for challenging that part of our game, but it was just breakdowns. Some of the fundamental stuff that we take great pride in, and other parts we were maybe just a bit outplayed in certain parts of the game.”
It came on a night when captain Darcy Moore was concussed on the eve of half-time in a heavy collision with Geelong’s Oisin Mullin.
Asked if Moore’s absence in the second half was the root cause for the lapse in defensive integrity, McRae said he hoped that wasn’t the case.
“They started well – it didn’t help, we already had Steele playing back, and (Quaynor) was doing a good job on Dempsey on the wing … and we had to play Pendles a bit back there,” he said.
“It happens. But again, it’s not our story. I wouldn’t think that Darcy going down is the reason why they kicked 18-odd goals.
“We’d like to think we’re better than one person; we’ve proven that when he hasn’t played.”
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Also brought into question was the form of superstar midfielder Nick Daicos, whose disposal efficiency has fallen over the past three weeks.
And blanketed by Geelong tagging specialist Mullin on Saturday, Daicos notched 29 disposals but at just 55 per cent efficiency, managing 7.4 rating points after entering with an average of 16.33.
“Respectfully, he’s got a guy just hanging off him,” McRae staunchly said when asked for the reason behind the drop-off.
“He had 29 disposals tonight … I would have thought that’s the most that Mullin has given up – he did a good job, young Mullin, he’s doing a great job for their team.
“(Daicos) is such an elite player – we want the ball in his hands as much as we can, (but) everything’s pressured. I haven’t seen every one of his ineffective kicks.
“We also have a game (style) where we want to take territory. We won a flag in ‘23 (when) we were the worst kicking efficiency in the competition … kicking efficiency is not a number that we care too often about.”
Beginning to be asked a follow-up about getting the footy in Daicos’ hands, McRae jumped in, stating: “I’m not going to sit here and judge Nick Daicos’ decision-making or his skill efficiency.
“I think we all marvel at what he does. We’re not perfect – we don’t aim to be – he’s an elite player of the competition getting tagged and trying his guts out for our team.”
Craig McRae wouldn’t accept criticism of Nick Daicos’ decision-making.Source: FOX SPORTS
In the first half against the Cats, Collingwood was able to get its forward-half intercept game going, yet its familiar issue of not being able to capitalise on repeat inside-50s proved fatal.
McRae’s side finished +7 for forward entries but registered a goals-per-inside-50 rate of just 11 per cent to three-quarter-time.
“We sat here last week saying we were lucky to draw the game with the numbers, and this week, we defended the front half of our game really well … (but) I just thought tonight we got a few decision-making things wrong,” McRae admitted.
“And we’ll have to keep putting in front of the players around when to go fast and when to go slow – I thought we went too slow at times (tonight).
“When we had one-on-ones and didn’t take them, and we didn’t be brave enough. So, we’ll get to work on that.”
The Pies will next week travel to play league-leading Sydney at the SCG without skipper Moore and 432-gamer Scott Pendlebury (managed).