his side\u2019s tight eight-point loss to Melbourne on King\u2019s Birthday,<\/a> the 2023 premiership coach expressed his desire to again be active with some of the league\u2019s best seasoned campaigners.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m impatient, I\u2019m impatient to get the right people in our environment and also try to get our list to a state where we can compete,\u201d McRae told Fox Footy on Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what our intentions are, and we\u2019ll work to whatever that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
When quizzed specifically on whether Lachie Neale was a part of his trade targets this yeah, McRae responded: \u201cYou\u2019d like to think anyone who\u2019s a free agent that hasn\u2019t signed, we\u2019ve got some sights on.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome you feel like a little bit more deeper in the market than others and there\u2019s a lot outside your control. But, days like today and Anzac Day \u2014 if you\u2019re watching at home, I\u2019m sure there\u2019s an attraction to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mihocek in trouble from dangerous tackle | 00:26<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old Neale will have his children \u2014 who are in Perth with estranged wife Jules \u2014 front-of-mind when making his decision.<\/p>\n
Crucially, should the two-time flag winner land on Collingwood as his new club of choice, it won\u2019t cost the black and white any draft capital given his status as an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n
With veterans such as Scott Pendlebury (38 years old), Jeremy Howe (35), Steele Sidebottom (35), Jamie Elliott (33), Jack Crisp (32) and Tim Membrey (32) all still staples in McRae\u2019s best 23 side, the club\u2019s list profile has been questioned year-on-year as young talent becomes harder to lay hands on with Tasmania\u2019s looming inception into the AFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know where they are with their list. It\u2019s just going to take some time to turn it over, and they want to see some green shoots out of their under-25\u2019s,\u201d three-time Brisbane premiership player Jonathan Brown told On The Couch on Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went for a walk with my big mate \u2018Leppa\u2019 (Justin Leppitsch) the other day, who\u2019s the list boss. He understands that of course they\u2019ve got to get some young talent in there.<\/p>\n
\u201cNick Daicos makes up for about four under-25s, doesn\u2019t he? But, they know they\u2019ve got to get some talent in there while still building on the experienced stock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howie gun show at the Big Freeze! | 02:40<\/p>\n
Adelaide, West Coast and St Kilda are among the other clubs understood to have flagged preliminary interest in recruiting Neale.<\/p>\n
Brown was in favour of the Magpies pursuing the inside midfielder, as long as it doesn\u2019t compromise their ability to also bring in young talent. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn concert with some younger players coming along, no doubt (it would be a good move). I\u2019m not sure on it\u2019s own. If you just brought in Lachie Neale, I\u2019m not sure it helps. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve still got to be able to build your younger players. Because I think that the core of premiership teams are still those younger, core of players to get you there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood coach Craig McRae has all but confirmed his club will again be major players in the free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,41556,64,63,689,55,639,3237,10133,10143,350230,281289,42717,36878,19125,10132,19052,25875,17998,350267,19096,343123,647,677,46,28885,8016,59288,19083,85,1122,36848,14419,69024,350266,350268,660,3439,19054],"class_list":["post-722939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-agency-market","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-craig-mcrae","tag-dangerous-tackling-action","tag-eight-point-loss","tag-jack-crisp","tag-jamie-elliott","tag-jay-clark","tag-jeremy-howe","tag-jonathan-brown","tag-lachie-neale","tag-list-profile","tag-looming-inception","tag-mark-howard","tag-match-press-conference","tag-melbourne","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-premiership-coach","tag-premiership-player","tag-premiership-teams","tag-scott-pendlebury","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-steele-sidebottom","tag-tim-membrey","tag-trade-targets","tag-two-time-flag-winner","tag-urges-critics","tag-victoria","tag-western-australia","tag-young-talent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722939","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=722939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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