booed throughout the night<\/a> by Crows supporters, things could scarcely have been more hostile for the visitors.<\/p>\nBut vision capturing laughs aplenty in the Pies rooms during an address from McRae to the entire playing squad and support staff before the game shows the team were undaunted by the challenge.<\/p>\n
Central to the speech, McRae revealed post-match, was acknowledging Quaynor\u2019s 150th game and Jordan De Goey\u2019s 200th appearance in black and white \u2013 with both going on to play key roles in the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just talked about how certain things travel with you, and one of them\u2019s our spirit,\u201d the 52-year old said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s ours: how we look after each other, how we pick each other up, celebrate those things.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust talking about Jordy\u2019s 200th game and Q\u2019s [Quaynor], celebrating those things. <\/p>\n
\u201cI try to be a bit funny at times, I don\u2019t quite hit all the time. There were a couple of little laughs!\u201d<\/p>\n
Magpies players loved Craig McRae’s pre-match address.Source: Fox Sports<\/p>\n
Coming off a five-day break following a vital win over Carlton in Round 19, even McRae thought the challenge of taking down a Crows team coming off a stirring victory of their own over Sydney at the SCG was a daunting one.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I would have thought we were long odds to beat the Crows tonight,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying them over here, the way they\u2019ve been playing, their pressure, the squad they\u2019ve got in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some young guys finding their way and we\u2019re playing like a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, Collingwood had looked utterly outclassed as the Crows, on the back of five first-half goals from twin towers Taylor Walker and Riley Thilthorpe, ruled the skies at either end of the ground.<\/p>\n
In attack, the Pies\u2019 own talls were unable to exert any influence, with Josh Worrell (three intercept marks in the second quarter alone) repelling their forward forays time and again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is becoming men versus boys,\u201d David King said on Fox Footy after a Thilthorpe contested mark and goal pushed the Crows\u2019 lead to 27 points midway through the second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just look to have taken total control of the air.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae on Quaynor boos | 00:50<\/p>\n
But aside from a brief stint up forward for Jeremy Howe late in the half, which yielded a vital goal, McRae and the Magpies\u2019 coaching staff backed the players to turn it around after the main break.<\/p>\n
And it paid dividends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe showed some footage around our forwards getting a bit starved, so they got a bit desperate and they started getting up the ground a bit too high,\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we won it under pressure, we were kicking back to the interceptors – some of those players are some of the best in the comp. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur contest balance was really out of whack for periods, so we talked about trying to get that right.<\/p>\n
Craig McRae celebrates Collingwood\u2019s win with young forward Charlie West. (Photo by James Elsby\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our forwards, it was about [being] a bit more patient, let the game come to you a bit more, and then a couple of little subtle shifts around positioning.\u201d<\/p>\n
A core element of McRae\u2019s message, as he revealed to Fox Footy, was the belief that a 15-4 free kick count at the main break \u2013 which the coach described as \u201cpretty horrendous\u201d \u2013 would eventually turn their way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to the players \u2018that\u2019s got to turn, that\u2019s just a number\u2019,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were still winning the contest, I think from memory, with that number being so far out of whack.\u201d<\/p>\n
The faith McRae showed in his charges extended to the trust placed in his crew of veterans to perform off a short turnaround.<\/p>\n
Having been questioned over his resting of games record holder Scott Pendlebury earlier in the season, the 38-year old was backed in under the Thursday night lights, as was Steele Sidebottom.<\/p>\n
As with every other rein the master coach pulled at the Adelaide Oval, it came up trumps.<\/p>\n
With 29 disposals and 23 disposals respectively, only Nick Daicos won more of the footy among the Pies than Pendlebury and Sidebottom, with their calm decision-making and sharp ball use standing out amid the frenetic pressure of the first three quarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t had a great record with our older players after five days and turning it around, so we were conscious of that,\u201d McRae said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI went to every one of them [and asked] how you\u2019re feeling. We want to be fit to perform not just fit to play. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019Pendles\u2019 says \u2018no, I want to play\u2019 and Steele goes \u2018no, I\u2019m ready to go, I feel great\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Pendlebury celebrates a Collingwood goal with Nick Daicos. (Photo by Sarah Reed\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
McRae added that youngster Sam Swadling, who was rested after an impressive first five games, was likely to return for the Pies\u2019 crunch clash with Geelong next Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the youngest in the squad and we thought this was going to be a really high contest game,\u201d the coach said of the 19-year old. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d love to get him back in as early as next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Get all the latest AFL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nThat Cats contest looms as pivotal in deciding the make-up of the top six, with the Pies, at worst, giving themselves the inside running on a home wildcard final should they win.<\/p>\n
And ahead of a difficult final month of the home-and-away season featuring blockbusters against Hawthorn and Brisbane at the MCG, Collingwood might have just given themselves enough of a buffer to ride out the storm.<\/p>\n
One thing\u2019s for sure: no one is going to want to face Fly\u2019s Pies when September rolls around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A humorous pre-match address from Collingwood coach Craig McRae proved just the tonic to inspire the Magpies to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-819763","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\/819763","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=819763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}