AFL 2024: Collingwood coach says no focus on Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom futures

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AFL 2024: Collingwood coach says no focus on Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom futures

Craig McRae is refusing to put a line through Collingwood’s premiership defence and says “we’re not there yet” on deciding the futures of his ageing stars.

The Magpies coach said his side was focused on “getting this thing moving” and would not put a ceiling on the final five weeks of the home-and-away season.

Questions remain over the composition of Collingwood’s list next season, with five players aged 30 or older out of contract at the season’s end.

Magpies champions Scott Pendlebury, 37, and Steele Sidebottom, 34, are having regular conversations with McRae as the season goes on, but the coach said those talks were about “the now”.

“I’m speaking with Steele and Pendles regularly – like weekly and fortnightly – not just about the future but about the now,” McRae said.

“But we’re not there yet … respectfully, we want to honour our greats and those two in particular, they live in that bracket.”

McRae suggested the recent discourse over the state of Collingwood’s list had been overly reactionary.

“Funnily enough, when it’s a premiership list it’s bulletproof, and then when it’s not, it’s got holes everywhere in it,” he said.

“But we’re going to have a bit more of a futuristic look at that … I’ll leave that to others to make all those finite details.

“We’ll be collective on making sure we get the right direction for this footy club.”

Collingwood sits a game-and-a-half outside the top eight with the lowest percentage of the top 13 sides ahead of Sunday’s clash with Richmond.

The Pies’ forward line will be bolstered by the inclusion of Mason Cox and Lachie Schultz, but the form of its premiership defenders and the ongoing groin issue Jordan De Goey is playing through remain cause for concern.

McRae said there was still plenty to gain from the final five rounds and said the finals equation would take care of itself.

“We never talked about finals last year – we talk about winning a lot, but we actually don’t talk about winning the game because that’s so much out of our control,” he said.

“It’s about the behaviours to be a winner, so nothing about the finals other than trying to be the best version of us and get this thing moving.”

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