McRae won’t give up on Magpies’ flag defence

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McRae won’t give up on Magpies’ flag defence

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has refused to concede his side’s AFL premiership defence is over despite taking a hammer ***** from Hawthorn in the heaviest defeat of his tenure so far.

The Magpies were comprehensively outplayed from the outset in Saturday’s 20.13 (133) to 9.13 (67) loss at the MCG, beaten up around the ball and made to look slow by the energetic Hawks.

It left Collingwood (8-8-2) sitting 13th on the ladder and in serious danger of missing the finals as they look towards a tough run home.

They face Richmond next round before meetings with Carlton, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, who all started round 19 inside the top eight.

“We’re still breathing here. Nothing’s finished,” McRae said.

“I guarantee you we’ll walk in on Monday and we’re getting to work.

“Nothing’s finished, there’s no end point right now.

“We’re on this journey of discovery of a new version of us and exploration.

“We’re still getting better every day, so where’s the end point on that?

“This is a different version of us potentially – maybe we have got to go through this to be a better version of us.”

McRae felt there were many areas where Hawthorn made his side look second-rate but insisted the Magpies’ shortcomings – in areas such as contest, commitment and organisation – could be fixed quickly.

Despite wet conditions, Collingwood conceded the highest score of McRae’s tenure as Hawthorn piled on seven goals to one in the first half and another eight majors in the final term.

“That is not a representation of us. That was pretty ugly at times,” McRae said.

“We’re not going to enjoy watching some of that back, because that’s not who we want to be.”

McRae didn’t believe his players gave up, but conceded the performance flew in the face of the culture he has tried to build at the club.

“We’re a team that’s spent the better part of two-and-a-half years building a culture about being ‘winners’,” McRae said.

“We lost today and we were right on the edge of being ‘losers’.

“You can lose and still be ‘winners’, and we were right on the edge.”

Collingwood lost Nathan Kreuger to concussion but could welcome back Beau McCreery and Lachie Schultz from injuries against Richmond next round.

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