The Magpies are facing some brutal decisions at the end of the season.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae has made the tough admission there could be a few tough conversations with veterans ahead of the 2025 season with Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom’s future uncertain at the club. The Magpies are facing a tough task in making AFL finals footy this year, despite winning the premiership last year.
McRae’s men face a must-win game against last-placed Richmond this weekend having lost their last four games. They lost to Hawthorn last week, the oldest squad in the league, and the Magpies coach faces a number of huge calls at the end of the season regarding his own veterans.
Next year, if the squad remains the same, Collingwood will enter the season with 11 players over the age of 30. After a season that could see them miss out on finals footy, questions could be asked of dual premiership heroes Scott Pendlebury (37 next January) and Steele Sidebottom (34 next January).
And coach McRae has admitted talks are already underway with the two veterans over their Collingwood future. But the coach wanted to make sure the club greats were respected if it is time for them to leave Collingwood or potentially retire from the AFL.
“I’m speaking with Steele and ‘Pendles’ regularly, like weekly and fortnightly, not just about the future but about the now,” McRae said ahead of the Richmond clash. “But we’re not there yet … respectfully, we want to honour our greats and those two in particular, they live in that bracket.
“Funnily enough when it’s a premiership list it’s bulletproof, add then when it’s not, it’s got holes everywhere in it. 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.”
Craig McRae confident in Collingwood turnaround in 2024
McRae has faced plenty of pressure this season with the reigning champions sitting in 13th position after a string of lacklustre performances. While Collingwood are facing a number of must-win games in the backend of the season, McRae isn’t worried about his side just yet.
“We never talked about finals last year,” he said. “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. 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.”
Collingwood will welcome back Mason Cox and Lachie Schultz against Richmond in a timely boost for the squad. However, there is concern over Jordan De Goey playing through injury, while Darcy Moore has copped the brunt of criticism for a series of underwhelming displays this season.
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