Collingwood coach Craig McRae has stated Magpies fans can expect a new game style at the nest ahead of his maiden campaign at the helm.
The Magpies have boasted one the best defensive structures in the competition, with star figures in Darcy Moore, Jeremy Howe and Brayden Maynard utilised heavily in recent years. But with their reliance on dependable defenders came criticism, as they struggled to go forward and impact the scoreboard.
With a focus on further injecting youth into their senior side this season, McRae is set to experiment tactically as the Magpies look to steer themselves back toward finals contention.
Speaking on SEN, McRae detailed just how different the Pies' ball movement will look in 2022, flagging fans to look out for a more attacking style.
"You’ll have to see it, but we’ll go forward more,” McRae said.
“You’ll just see, we won’t be going backwards, sideways and around.
“I think there’s a shift in the game and the way it’s played across the board. I’m just listening to all sorts of coaches and players about ‘we want to score more and go forward’."
The premiership Lion says the one key area the club have focused on over the pre-season was contested ball work, a trait of their game that the club has perhaps gone away from in recent seasons.
“We’ve done a truckload of work on kicking to one-on-ones and two-on-twos and the old fashion roll it out in front one-on-ones," he added.
“We needed to really practice that over the summer and you’ll see that (in our practice match against Hawthorn).
“We have to get better at that side of the game. You can’t denigrate the past, but the past was an uncontested brand and we’ve got 20 guys under 21 who haven’t played much contested footy.
“It’s so difficult and it is the unknown. Take Scott Pendlebury for example who’s played 334 games, but he’s yet to play one in this new game plan. A guy like him is still learning new things and how we want to play."
After finishing second last in 2021 and adding more youthful and inexperienced talent to their list, expectations on Collingwood are low.
While wins may be hard to come by, McRae said there should be evident growth from among the playing group across the course of this season.
“All I’ll say to the fans listening is that I’ll be disappointed if you don’t see natural growth every week from individuals or the teams. That’s the focus I’d present to the board," he said.
“The players hear it every day. We want to get better every single day and we hold each other to account.
“I think time will be the judge of all of that. We’re just striving to be better every day.”
