Collingwood coach Craig McRae has revealed the extra work on fundamentals his most senior players were required to improve on over the summer following a down 2024 season, with 17-year veteran Steele Sidebottom now reaping the "benefits" amid what is shaping as a near career-best campaign for the two-time premiership Magpie.
Sidebottom has been one of McRae's most influential players to start the season, polling a total of 40 MVP votes over the first four games to sit second on the overall leaderboard.
His latest outing, a 28-disposal performance that earned him a return of a game-high 13 score involvements against Sydney, added to the prolific opening of his current campaign in the black and white.
Sidebottom tallied 13 contested possessions in the 31-point win to bring his season mean to 11.2 per game - 1.6 more than his next best season average back in 2018.
That year, the Magpies wingman polled 24 Brownlow votes to finish second overall, with his inside role under McRae this season likely to have him favoured by the match officials across the first five rounds.
The fundamental work from Collingwood's contingent of players over 30 was raised as an area of concern in the wake of the club's finals-less finish last year, with the Magpies' pivoted focus since returning over the pre-season seeing rises in the form of Sidebottom and partner-in-crime Scott Pendlebury.
Speaking after his side's 10th consecutive win at Adelaide Oval on Friday night, McRae shed light on Sidebottom's increase in impact at the coalface.
"His contest-to-contest work (is strong). You watch him, he's an elite runner. He's arguably our best runner," the Magpies coach said of the 34-year-old.
"When the ball left the scrimmages, he's the next one to turn up in the screen and looks really sharp, doesn't he?
"We reviewed, heavily, a lot of our systems in our season last year, and one of the things that stood out was our guys 30-plus didn't do enough fundamentals.
"The fundamentals are a hallmark and foundation of our game, and we do so much work on it, and the guys that started back a bit late didn't get the minutes.
"So we deliberately planned around our 30-plus (players) doing a lot more fundamentals and Steele is showing the benefits of that."
Sidebottom, coupled with fellow onballers Pendlebury, Ned Long and Nick Daicos, were significant in delivering the club's fourth win of the year, with pressure and contest work a clear advantage over the Swans.
The Magpies won the clearance and contested possession counts on the night, while their pressure in the middle and defensive thirds of the field left the Swans managing just 18 scoring shots from 56 forward 50 entries.
Expecting a tough task against Sydney's elite engine room ensemble, the Collingwood coach expressed his pride, and surprise, in the midfield advantage by the final siren.
"Honestly, going into the game (we knew) they're such a hard team to play against, we've had years of struggle to beat them," he said.
"When we were four or five goals up last year we just couldn't hold on. We've got a great respect for them.
"Coming in tonight we were thinking this is going to be a hard game. I thought it was a really cracking game of footy early, and then we got the game on our terms.
"I thought it was a great performance by our guys."
The Magpies sit at 4-1 after Gather Round, with a matchup against the reigning premiers to follow in Round 6 on Thursday at the Gabba.
