Say that again?
Craig McRae has raised eyebrows for one sentence made in the speech he delivered to Collingwood faithful at the club’s best and fairest awards on Friday night.
Nick Daicos took out his first E.W. Copeland Trophy as the best player of the 2024 season, but it is McRae’s speech that has now got tongues wagging.
McRae, who led the Pies to the premiership in 2023, has emerged as one of the most popular and respected coaches across the competition.
His clear values of sportsmanship and humility are something that has spread through the Collingwood dressing room — but that’s where it ends.
The coach has left fans scoffing by claiming “we don’t boo at Collingwood” with the Magpie Army earlier this year coming under fire for ugly cases of booing opposition players.
McRae was mid-way through a comment about Nick Daicos finishing second in the Brownlow Medal count when it appeared he had to disapprove of something that was yelled out from inside the room.
“Can you believe Nick scored 38 votes in the Brownlow and came second. Unbelievable,” he said before there appeared to be some boos shouted from the crowd.
“No. We don’t boo at Collingwood,” he said holding his finger up.
“We congratulate Patty Cripps for his outstanding year. What an outstanding player he was. And is.”
His faith in diehard Collingwood supporters sharing his values may be more than a little optimistic.
Leading footy journo Damian Barrett was among the commentators to slam Magpies supporters in July when fans appeared to boo Jack Ginnivan when the Hawks forward faced off with his former club.
“What a pathetic, and highly hypocritical, showing last Sunday, in giving it to Jack Ginnivan,” Barrett wrote on the AFL website.
“It was only last year those same fans were in outrage mode when other supporter groups were booing Ginnivan.”
It’s why fans this weekend haven’t been able to let McRae get away with the unfortunate “lie”.
Two videos of the statement have more than 200,000 views on Twitter.
One fan posted: “We don’t boo at Collingwood” is crazy”.
Another posted: “Collingwood fans are some of the most feral out there… bloke lied”.
And a third posted: “He’s obviously never listened at one of their games”.
Other fans applauded McRae for his stance.
“Hats off to him for it though. As much as we hate Collingwood you can’t help but like Fly,” one fan wrote.
Another posted: “There’s always going to be a crowd of supporters who want to boo in every supporter base but I’m glad Fly is setting the standard to be better and many pies supporters have embraced that.
“I for one was never a fan of booing and am glad Fly is getting this message across.”
McRae’s other stand-out comment was a focus on congratulating players and their partners on the babies they have celebrated this year.
Welcoming a small army of new potential future father-son draft selections hasn’t gone unnoticed just days after St Kilda president Andrew Bassat appeared to suggest the competition — particularly the national draft — is not even.
His speech focused on recent father-son draft selections and club’s with access to academy talents.
“The system; it’s not a level playing field as we all know,” he said during his speech as the club’s best and fairest award.
“The more I look at it, the system is designed to favour the wealthier clubs and designed to favour the northern clubs. Our role, is meant to be to make up the numbers, and not complain about it.
“In terms of what we’re doing about it, it’s fair to say that our club is sick and tired of meekly accepting its rubbish.
“We’re absolutely committed as a club to fight relentlessly, to ensure that we’re given a fairer opportunity for success.”
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