2023 premiership coach Craig McRae admits he is "honoured" to be the man tasked with helming South Australia's first foray into the Origin furnace since 1999.
McRae featured in that last outing for the state, as a player, and recalls it fondly.
It is one of many reasons why he jumped at the role.
"It's a huge honour," the 53-year-old told reporters on Friday.
"When you have a chance to reflect on your career, there's little milestones along the way that you never forget. I was lucky enough to go on and win premierships post-that opportunity, but in '99, that was one of the best things I've done individually.
"You get to put on the colours, and it's not just the colours - you're growing up watching this, your family and friends come along for the journey of that. The young men that get to do that this time around, they won't forget this."
South Australian talent is scattered around the country, and McRae is excited by the opportunity to shine a light on the such players.
"There's a few (that I'm excited to coach). We haven't quite got together to finalise a squad yet, but we'll do that in due course. There's a lot of South Australian talent out there that goes to other places, and you forget they come from here," the Collingwood coach said.
In rubbing shoulders with some of that talent at the Brownlow Medal in September, McRae quipped that St Kilda skipper, backman Callum Wilkie, had been the favourite for the state's captaincy until a certain compatriot whose captaincy credentials were emboldened significantly in 2026, walked on by.
"At the Brownlow, I saw (Callum) Wilkie and I had a chat to him and said "Oh you'll be captain for sure, if you get in this state team, and I might be the coach if you are!" and then we were chatting for a minute and (Adelaide skipper Jordan) Dawson walked past and I thought 'hang on a minute'. He (Wilkie) was captain for about 30 seconds," McRae joked.
One South Australian almost certain to receive a guernsey is McRae's most recent recruit at Collingwood, dual Brownlow Medallist and three-time premiership Lion, Lachie Neale.
McRae is buoyed by the difference Neale can provide for his club side, especially in the wake of the losses of legendary Collingwood ornaments Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury.
"We haven't started our pre-season yet, but Lachie came over last week, brought his young family over and had a couple of hours at my house, with my young kids. He's got an enormous amount of experience - we just lost a bit at Collingwood, so to get him (when) the paint is still wet on his tattoo from winning a premiership again (is huge)," McRae said.
"Those experiences, to come in and make us better, we're super excited for.
'We're all looking to improve. You get through trade period and you think you have, and then you look around and go 'hang on a minute, so have they, so have they, so have they'. We're in the business of improving ourselves, and we'd like to think we've done that in the off-season. Now it's about getting busy on the field."
Criticism was levelled by different corners of the landscape that the coaches who have access to elite talent via the rejuvenated Origin concept have an upper hand in potentially swaying out-of-contract commodities to join their environment.
The question naturally arose as to whether McRae - a coach infamous for taking rival players on "dates", as he has called them previously - would be looking to leverage that opportunity.
"We're there for a week - we've got a week to prepare for a game, to beat Western Australia. You form relationships - that's real - I'm a relationships guy, but I think those things are nice in theory, but in reality, you're there for four days, to go there and perform," he said.
Collingwood's season ended in the first edition of the Wildcard Round, but McRae liked what he saw from his side, despite their campaign ending before the calendar read 'September'.
"It was a funny year in terms of our growth. 10th on the ladder - I never thought I'd stand in front of people and say "we had a really positive year" but we did," he said.
"We won a lot of games late in the year, and exposed a lot of youth (to the level), through opportunity and injury and other things. There's an energy and an appetite to get better. We haven't started yet but there's a lot of players in our building, hungry to improve."
McRae also shared an insight into how hands-on he will be across the pre-season, as he embarks on his sixth, helming the nation's biggest club.
"I have an approach that I'd like to be really present, pre-Christmas. We've got new draftees, new players, new staff, and I want to really embed our culture, and make sure that's driven forward," he shared.
"Then you get to Christmas, and I've learned you can actually take an extra couple of weeks at Christmas time, let the players do a bit more of the grind - that's the approach I took last year, and I'll do it again this year."
Club skipper Darcy Moore has seen his role as head Magpie questioned in the wake of Nick Daicos' emergence as the competition's best player, and one of its blossoming leaders - questions only further by Moore's inability to stay on the park through injury.
McRae offered that his premiership captain is progressing through his rehabilitation well.
"I'm walking with Darcy on Monday - I've been doing that with all of our leaders over the last couple of weeks. He was really progressing about a month ago, into full training - that's a positive thing at this stage," McRae finished.
