Collingwood has rattled off their fourth win of the season to sneak into the eight after downing an uber-competitive Gold Coast outfit by 25 points.
The Pies quickly composed themselves after conceding two quick goals in the opening several minutes of the contest as they went on to kick seven unanswered majors en route to a 26-point quarter-time lead. This buffer proved the difference as Collingwood was able to match the Suns each time they threatened to close the gap.
Gold Coast managed to fight the good fight off the back of former Pie-turned-Suns co-captain Jarrod Witts' dominant tap work, especially from his centre bounce connections with fellow co-captain Touk Miller.
However, what made the victory impressive was that Collingwood managed to put forth such a performance despite injury and illness wreaking havoc at the club during the week.
The extent of which was detailed by McRae in the aftermath of the win, with the club having seen trio Jordan De Goey, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Callum Brown, among others, face a race to be fit for selection .
“We are really proud of our performance. You don’t see what goes on behind the scenes for a week, we have been scrambling all week to try to see what our best team is going to look like,” McRae said.
“We have had a lot of injury and illness, obviously to those that you know about going out of the team.
“We are just proud of our boys to be able to reset ourselves and put our eye on the prize and come here ready to play and kicking seven goals in the first quarter was a fantastic start."
“(There were) half a dozen and a couple of coaches (sick). There is a lot of coughing and spluttering going on now so I have been told to get out of there.
“With COVID going on at the moment, we test everyday so there is no risk of that but the man flu, it can be terminal for some, can’t it?
“At one stage during the week I did not want to answer the phone because it was going to be another text that someone was sick or that there was another injury. It was one of those weeks.
“To be honest, three or four players I got told wouldn’t play this week or were unlikely and they all played and played their roles so that is great spirit and the team benefits from that.”
Sunday marked the third time that Pies had scored at least 100 points this season and the sixth time they scored at least 90 points, which is a far cry from their 2021 campaign in which they managed to score 90 plus points on just three occasions, including one 100 point score, in turn inferring the immediate success of the new coach's attacking philosophy.
Forward
Goals
Marks
Tackles
While McRae's men were able to rattle off the win, Collingwood will be hoping that they have a better bill of health as they are set to take on a red-hot Richmond outfit that will be bolstered by the likely return of superstar Dustin Martin.
