Collingwood coach Craig McRae has walked back his philosophy that he “wants players not picks”, saying he prefers a “balanced” approach and relishes the cashed-up club’s full draft hand for the first time in his tenure.
McRae was famously quoted two years ago saying he wanted the club to be aggressive in the trade period and prioritise putting its picks on the table to lure talent, instead of taking them to the draft.
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It came ahead of a busy off-season when the Pies topped up with Dan Houston, Harry Perryman and Tim Membrey to go all in for another flag tilt in a consistent approach since McRae has been at the helm.
The club hasn’t used a first-round pick at the draft since it nabbed Nick Daicos with the No. 4 selection in 2021.
But the Magpies coach has clarified that his famous quotes from 2024 were made in support of list manager Justin Leppitsch’s plans at the time and didn’t necessarily reflect his broader views.
“I honestly haven’t spoken about this ever. I’ve just let it be out there for the narrative that’s been written about that quote. But that was never my agenda or philosophy,” McRae said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Monday night.
“That was something happening in the background through a trade period. Funnily enough, Justin Leppitsch asked me to say that publicly, so it would support a trade. But that’s so far from my philosophy or my want.
“If anything, I’m probably more balanced and struggle to have one philosophy around trading, because I think you can’t sit it one box.
“If you just go straight to the trade period and free agency, then you’re leaving other things behind. I think you’ve got to be really balanced and somewhat meet every trade period and the draft with its own merits.
“This is the first time I’ve been coach of Collingwood that we’ve got all our draft picks and we’ve got a healthy salary cap. We’re not paying players from other clubs and we’ve got money to spend.
“It just hasn’t been the story in my time. There’s an excitement with that.”
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The Pies, who no longer owe funds to the likes of Adam Treloar and Brodie Grundy, have again been busy trying to recruit players from rival clubs including links to Lachie Neale, Zak Butters, Ben King, Jed Walter and Mitch Lewis.
McRae said the ideal list management plan “varies from year to year” depending on the talent available on the market.
“If Jeremy Cameron was available, you’d give up three first-round draft picks for him in a heartbeat. He’s a generational player…. you look at opportunities like that, those things come and go,” he said.
“Probably in a perfect world, maybe a couple of players (from other clubs) and go to the draft with your first-round pick. I think that would be a model I would try and repeat and repeat.
“But again, every year represents something different.”
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It comes as Collingwood navigates a delicate transition of the oldest list in the competition and several champions coming towards the end of the career.
The Magpies have unearthed five debutants in 2026 — the seventh-most of any side — including Sam Swadling, Angus Anderson and Liam Puncher getting key opportunities in recent weeks amid a four-game winning streak.
Meanwhile, youngster Ed Allan has established a spot in the senior team as a defensive midfielder in a promising stretch from the former first-round pick.
Though McRae said getting the balance right with the list moving forward is “thankfully not my job” but that he’d support the decisions made.
“Thankfully, that’s not my job. I’m here to coach the team. But I’ll support the decisions made. My job is, once you get the list, what can we do with this list?,” he said.
“Ultimately you want to expose Sam Swadling, Harvey Harrison, Puncher and these guys show they’re going to take us to another level we’re yet to reach.
“Then you’ve got Nick Daicos and Josh Daicos playing career-best footy and you want to make sure we capitalise on what they’re able to bring to the table.
“It’s always a delicate balance. But we’re always trying to grow and improve. Where we are now to where we were at the start of the year, we think we’ve improved.
“Our connection inside 50, we kicked 100 points a couple of weeks in a row and 89 on the weekend with, respectfully, a licorice all sorts forward line at times.”
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Meanwhile, decisions around Collingwood’s crop of veterans due to come out of contract — including Scott Pendlebury (38), Steele Sidebottom (35) and Jeremy Howe (36) — were “delicate” and required weekly catch ups.
“Respectfully, they’ve earned the right to control somewhat of the narrative,” the Pies coach of those veterans in their twilight.
“I speak to them weekly, truthfully. We catch up weekly. It’s just ‘how you going?’, and varies from body management, to looking at the draw and ‘we’ve got five-day breaks coming up’ — all those conversations are had.
“No decisions are made yet.
“The season will run its full course for all of those three, unless something changes in the short term … the ability of our high performance team, you talk about how old we are, but to see those guys performing the way they are.
“Credit to them as professionals, but the environment to allow them to flourish and thrive is something we’re really proud of.”
But McRae wouldn’t be drawn into whether Collingwood had used the longevity of its veterans as part of the club’s bid to lure Brisbane superstar Neale, who turns 34 next year.
“I’d rather stay out of that, let others talk about potential people coming in,” he said.
“I’m happy to talk about the ones we’ve got in our building right now who inspire us weekly.
“We dissected the last two minutes (against North Melbourne) within an inch of its life today and ‘Pendles’ and Howe were significant in trying to think a bit more broader than the average.”
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