![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
It came ahead of a busy off-season when the Pies topped up with Dan Houston, Harry Perryman and Tim Membrey to go all in for another flag tilt in a consistent approach since McRae has been at the helm.<\/p>\n
The club hasn\u2019t used a first-round pick at the draft since it nabbed Nick Daicos with the No. 4 selection in 2021.<\/p>\n
But the Magpies coach has clarified that his famous quotes from 2024 were made in support of list manager Justin Leppitsch\u2019s plans at the time and didn\u2019t necessarily reflect his broader views.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly haven\u2019t spoken about this ever. I\u2019ve just let it be out there for the narrative that\u2019s been written about that quote. But that was never my agenda or philosophy,\u201d McRae said on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 on Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was something happening in the background through a trade period. Funnily enough, Justin Leppitsch asked me to say that publicly, so it would support a trade. But that\u2019s so far from my philosophy or my want.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything, I\u2019m probably more balanced and struggle to have one philosophy around trading, because I think you can\u2019t sit it one box.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you just go straight to the trade period and free agency, then you\u2019re leaving other things behind. I think you\u2019ve got to be really balanced and somewhat meet every trade period and the draft with its own merits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve been coach of Collingwood that we\u2019ve got all our draft picks and we\u2019ve got a healthy salary cap. We\u2019re not paying players from other clubs and we\u2019ve got money to spend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just hasn\u2019t been the story in my time. There\u2019s an excitement with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerard talks ‘bewildering’ ump howlers | 01:58<\/p>\n
The Pies, who no longer owe funds to the likes of Adam Treloar and Brodie Grundy, have again been busy trying to recruit players from rival clubs including links to Lachie Neale, Zak Butters, Ben King, Jed Walter and Mitch Lewis.<\/p>\n
McRae said the ideal list management plan \u201cvaries from year to year\u201d depending on the talent available on the market. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jeremy Cameron was available, you\u2019d give up three first-round draft picks for him in a heartbeat. He\u2019s a generational player…. you look at opportunities like that, those things come and go,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cProbably in a perfect world, maybe a couple of players (from other clubs) and go to the draft with your first-round pick. I think that would be a model I would try and repeat and repeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again, every year represents something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL technology “NOT UP TO IT!” | 09:01<\/p>\n
It comes as Collingwood navigates a delicate transition of the oldest list in the competition and several champions coming towards the end of the career.<\/p>\n
The Magpies have unearthed five debutants in 2026 \u2014 the seventh-most of any side \u2014 including Sam Swadling, Angus Anderson and Liam Puncher getting key opportunities in recent weeks amid a four-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, youngster Ed Allan has established a spot in the senior team as a defensive midfielder in a promising stretch from the former first-round pick.<\/p>\n
Though McRae said getting the balance right with the list moving forward is \u201cthankfully not my job\u201d but that he\u2019d support the decisions made.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, that\u2019s not my job. I\u2019m here to coach the team. But I\u2019ll support the decisions made. My job is, once you get the list, what can we do with this list?,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately you want to expose Sam Swadling, Harvey Harrison, Puncher and these guys show they\u2019re going to take us to another level we\u2019re yet to reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you\u2019ve got Nick Daicos and Josh Daicos playing career-best footy and you want to make sure we capitalise on what they\u2019re able to bring to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a delicate balance. But we\u2019re always trying to grow and improve. Where we are now to where we were at the start of the year, we think we\u2019ve improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur connection inside 50, we kicked 100 points a couple of weeks in a row and 89 on the weekend with, respectfully, a licorice all sorts forward line at times.\u201d <\/p>\n
Collingwood hold on to beat North | 03:09<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, decisions around Collingwood\u2019s crop of veterans due to come out of contract \u2014 including Scott Pendlebury (38), Steele Sidebottom (35) and Jeremy Howe (36) \u2014 were \u201cdelicate\u201d and required weekly catch ups.<\/p>\n
\u201cRespectfully, they\u2019ve earned the right to control somewhat of the narrative,\u201d the Pies coach of those veterans in their twilight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI speak to them weekly, truthfully. We catch up weekly. It\u2019s just \u2018how you going?\u2019, and varies from body management, to looking at the draw and \u2018we\u2019ve got five-day breaks coming up\u2019 \u2014 all those conversations are had.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo decisions are made yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe season will run its full course for all of those three, unless something changes in the short term … the ability of our high performance team, you talk about how old we are, but to see those guys performing the way they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to them as professionals, but the environment to allow them to flourish and thrive is something we\u2019re really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
But McRae wouldn\u2019t be drawn into whether Collingwood had used the longevity of its veterans as part of the club\u2019s bid to lure Brisbane superstar Neale, who turns 34 next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d rather stay out of that, let others talk about potential people coming in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to talk about the ones we\u2019ve got in our building right now who inspire us weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe dissected the last two minutes (against North Melbourne) within an inch of its life today and \u2018Pendles\u2019 and Howe were significant in trying to think a bit more broader than the average.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood coach Craig McRae has walked back his philosophy that he \u201cwants players not picks\u201d, saying he prefers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-797460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797460","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=797460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}