{"id":673572,"date":"2026-05-15T23:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673572\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T23:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:30:10","slug":"afl-2026-craig-mcrae-press-conference-video-collingwood-magpies-lose-to-sydney-swans-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673572\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Craig McRae press conference, video, Collingwood Magpies lose to Sydney Swans, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood coach Craig McRae forecasted a hammer blow to one of his emerging players, in a moment that \u201cchanged\u201d the trajectory of Friday night\u2019s agonising loss to Sydney<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Magpies, who kicked five of the first six goals and restricted the Swans\u2019 corridor use, ultimately fell by six points at the SCG after Sydney stormed home with eight goals to four in the second half. <\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the third quarter, as the tide was starting to turn in the hosts\u2019 favour, Pies ruckman Oscar Steene went down with a devastating knee injury. <\/p>\n

Preparing to attack a marking contest against Grundy, the 22-year-old South Australian\u2019s left knee awkwardly buckled underneath him as he went to ground. <\/p>\n

McRae said on Friday night that Collingwood feared the worst for Steene, who appeared in serious pain and had to be slowly assisted off the ground. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not looking good, unfortunately,\u201d the coach told reporters post-game. \u201cThe early diagnosis is a full reconstruction. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to get scans to confirm all that. That\u2019s sad. To see what he was capable of against Brodie, who clearly is one of the better ruckmen in the competition, he was really holding his own, and we had a lot of ascendancy from that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we might have been 16 points up, or close to it, around that time, and then the game changes, because we just have to have the next man up. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got Dan McStay, Jack Buller and Ned Long trying, but not many teams can cope when their number-one ruckman goes down against an opponent like Brodie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cruel blow came as Collingwood was already missing first-choice tapster Darcy Cameron due to an ankle issue. <\/p>\n

And Grundy certainly exploited the Pies\u2019 lack of a recognised ruckman, finishing with 34 disposals, 47 hitouts, 12 clearances and a goal to win the Goodes-O\u2019Loughlin Medal for best-on-ground. <\/p>\n

RELATED: Swans claim thriller after stunning \u2018tidal wave\u2019 as Pies fear worst in \u2018disastrous\u2019 blow \u2014 3-2-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardwick hails suns resilience | 04:44<\/p>\n

Probed on what went wrong against what\u2019s currently the best outfit in the competition, McRae said his spirited side \u201cdid a lot right\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe turned up tonight with probably the youngest team we\u2019ve put on the park since I\u2019ve been involved,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe left with the number one ruckman out, the captain stayed at home, Patrick Lipinski a 150-gamer, and we brought in youth. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up here deliberately tonight to put on a show for ours fans that we want to fight, and that jumper means something when you put it on – it doesn\u2019t matter who wears it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know this game is judged on wins and losses \u2026 (but) there\u2019s an opportunity to turn p and play a brand of footy that our fans would be proud of, and I think we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past six matches, the 4-5-1 Pies – once affectionately thought of as the AFL\u2019s close-game masters – have twice lost by a goal and given up a late lead to draw with Hawthorn. <\/p>\n

On Friday, the inaccurate Pies kicked 1.7 in a second quarter where the Swans kicked 2.2 to stay within four goals at the main change. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe lose by a goal, it\u2019s almost (about) moments, isn\u2019t it?\u201d McRae said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone had a set shot; someone could have snapped a goal. Both teams kicked 15 points; it was tricky conditions. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s only the second time this year the Swans haven\u2019t kicked 100 points – we defend the ground well at our best, which gives us an opportunity. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith that energy and effort and energy that we had tonight, plus defending the ground, we\u2019re going to be in a lot of games.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a moment of curiosity in the fourth quarter when McRae had a few words to former Collingwood ruckman Grundy as he chased a ball over the boundary line. <\/p>\n

According to Grundy on Seven, it was along the lines of: \u201c\u2018G\u2019day old mate\u2019 … it was nothing untoward, the spirit of it … he just bobbed up right then and there, it was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

McRae, though, wasn\u2019t quite as revealing post-match. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to be able to share, but I can\u2019t share exactly what I said to him,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all respect, trust me, it was all respect. And I\u2019ve got great respect for what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood coach Craig McRae forecasted a hammer blow to one of his emerging players, in a moment that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[324952,638,96799,64,63,689,55,639,19530,128217,10125,10133,10143,49771,14385,49773,28452,258480,324954,37747,4486,12186,3231,324953,324951,17290,673,677,27704,83949,668,66897,85,36865,670,7200],"class_list":["post-673572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-addresses-reporters","tag-afl","tag-ankle-issue","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-boundary-line","tag-brodie","tag-close-game-masters","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-craig-mcrae","tag-cruel-blow","tag-damien-hardwick","tag-dan-mcstay","tag-darcy-cameron","tag-devastating-knee-injury","tag-fear-worst","tag-game-changes","tag-hammer-blow","tag-jack-buller","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-jumper-means","tag-lid-lifts","tag-marking-contest","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-oscar-steene","tag-patrick-lipinski","tag-press-conference","tag-sides-win","tag-sports","tag-suns-coach","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673572","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=673572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}