Collingwood coach Craig McRae<\/a> labelled as \u201cdisappointing\u201d after the match.<\/p>\nThe small defender played the game of his life and was a key reason the Magpies were able to keep the competition\u2019s No.1 offence to just eight goals.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old 2023 premiership player said he noticed the booing during his first possession but then did his best to block it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is \u2013 I\u2019m just out there playing a game, doing what I do,\u201d Quaynor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s their choice to boo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, probably [it\u2019s to do with what happened in round 23]. But that\u2019s all dealt with now, I just want to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quaynor acknowledged it was a difficult situation to deal with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an ideal situation to be in for anyone, and I\u2019m just glad the club did an incredible job dealing with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cDarcy [Moore], Fly [McRae], [football boss] Charlie Gardiner \u2013 they were absolutely incredible, so I\u2019m very lucky to be at this club.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae spoke about the booing in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas he actually getting booed? I thought they were yelling out \u2018Q\u2019. It is disappointing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always stories behind it, but I\u2019m just not a booer \u2013 I said this years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just get disappointed with that. When I first heard it, I thought, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s disappointing\u2019. Jeez, he must\u2019ve touched the footy a lot because he had a lot of the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud of him and Dan [Houston] and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Quaynor and Houston weren\u2019t the only Collingwood players to feel the wrath of Crows fans.<\/p>\n
Billy Frampton was also booed \u2013 seemingly due to his past history as a Port Adelaide [and former Adelaide] player, while ruckman Mason Cox was also jeered.<\/p>\n
When Nicks was asked about the booing, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s not one for me to comment on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I am also sitting in a box, I\u2019m not seeing or hearing any of that. I\u2019m seeing a stadium that\u2019s rocking, which it should do for a final, but I\u2019m not going to comment around that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quaynor conceded that his team hadn\u2019t been in the best form in the past two months, but was adamant the group didn\u2019t lose confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew going into this finals series we were doing a lot of things right, and we just weren\u2019t quite getting that nourishment with the four points,\u201d Quaynor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there was a lot of confidence going into this game and this week that what we had been working on; our game plan stacks up in finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Magpies now head into a week off before a home preliminary final at the MCG.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a roller-coaster second half of the year. The Pies were two-and-a-half games clear atop the ladder before their form disintegrated and they nearly slipped out of the top four, which would have seen them miss a crucial double chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty big [to get through],\u201d Quaynor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorrect me if I\u2019m wrong, but I don\u2019t think anyone got hurt. I think it now allows us to knuckle down on a few specifics of the game and put a bit more time into resting up and feeling fresh for the prelim.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Quaynor and Moore could be joined in the back six by intercept defender Jeremy Howe, who suffered an adductor injury in the round-24 win over Melbourne.<\/p>\n
McRae wasn\u2019t willing to guarantee Howe\u2019s selection in two weeks when asked about it after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good healer, he keeps telling me, he\u2019ll be a chance for the prelim,\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went into this year learning some great lessons from last year. The magnets looked really good last year. They were fit to play, but they weren\u2019t fit to perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s been our catch-cry all year. If someone is not fit to perform, they don\u2019t play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not risk v reward, we are risk-takers. He will play if he\u2019s fit to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rankine had initially been handed a five-match sanction, but his club was able to successfully argue it down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-119927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}