Collingwood coach Craig McRae said he “hoped” Nick Daicos’ late withdrawal didn’t have an impact on the playing group prior to the first ball-up on Thursday night.
It comes amid “cliff” worries for the Magpies, who had a historically poor night at the coalface against a ruthless Brisbane outfit in their 54-point loss.
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.
Daicos was a late scratching due to a corked calf he sustained last Friday night, and the contest-challenged Magpies wound up losing to Brisbane comprehensively at the Gabba after failing to get their hands on the footy enough.
How Daicos’ calf pulls up over the coming days will determine whether he’s in the frame to play in Gather Round.
Asked if the superstar’s late withdrawal threw things out of whack due to how close to the first ball-up it came, McRae said in his post-match press conference: “I’d hope it doesn’t.
“Because I’m sitting there as calm as anything going ‘alright, you’re not playing, next, Ed Allan, you’re coming in to play a role, you’re ready to go, let’s go’.
“Now, you’d hope it doesn’t (affect the playing group), because things that happen before the game shouldn’t really affect the first contest or our stoppage structure.
“It shouldn’t. Now, I know you could make a case that you take your best player out of any team, it’s probably going to disrupt, but you’d like to think not.”
Collingwood finished a concerning -39 for contested possessions; the club’s third-worst result in the Craig McRae era.
“I think the coach would be furious at that (number),” two-time flag-winner David King told Fox Footy’s post-game coverage.
Get all the latest AFL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!
Sidebottom rocked in spear tackle | 02:21
“Jordan De Goey (went) unsighted as a midfielder … two contested possessions for the night, (Jack) Crisp had two for the night, Ned Long gets more than six on a regular basis.
“So, without Pendlebury and De Goey (playing well), they were exposed. And I think their list is what it is.
“We know that it lacks a little bit of depth, and there is a cliff coming at some stage.”
Collingwood conceded a whopping 6.3 (39) from centre clearances alone; the second-most in the history of recording centre-bounce scores.
“Almost 40 points from centre-bounce clearances – it’s a number you don’t see very often … he’s disappointed that they couldn’t stand up and get organised with their stoppage structures,” King said.
“And I think that’s valid … you challenge the next player to get it organised, and they couldn’t.”
Speaking post-game, McRae said “stoppages got away from us”.
FULL ANALYSIS: No Daicos, BIG problems: Lions embarrass undermanned Magpies in flag reminder to rest of AFL
“Honestly, I felt like we got outplayed for most of the night,” McRae said.
“Stoppages just got away from us. You lose territory against this team, and it makes it really difficult.
“I just want to probably give credit more to them than us, but I did say to the playing group that there’s a lot of stuff right in front of us that we can fix really quickly, and we need to get to work on that.
“It’s early in the year, you get a bit of a wake-up call with a couple of parts of our game – stoppage is clearly one – we’ve got some work to do.”
Probed on the contested possession disparity, McRae said the Lions “were just swarming to the next contest”.
“Some of that is balance for us … the Lions are the best in the business if you don’t win the ball, and we didn’t win it tonight,” he said.
Collingwood has an eight-day break into its Gather Round meeting with Fremantle next Friday night at Adelaide Oval.
Discussion about this post