If, by some random turn of events, tough Collingwood forward Beau McCreery ends up on your table at a trivia night, don’t expect him to correctly answer football-related questions.
The 21-year-old’s real hero growing up was not a footballer but Australian motocross and supercross legend Chad Reed, who dominated the sport for most of McCreery’s lifetime.
Young Magpie Beau McCreery has made an impact this season.Credit:AFL Photos
Although he appreciated the way Richmond’s Dustin Martin played the game, he preferred tinkering on motorbikes or cars when not playing football himself. In 2022, as he has helped the Magpies roar up the ladder, it’s been a maroon XR6 Turbo FG, bought on a whim in Sydney last year, that has occupied his time.
Those who know McCreery say he would still struggle to name more than 30 AFL players who aren’t his Collingwood teammates.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t like the bash and crash nature of the game or using his speed and power to win and then run with the ball. His strength means he hits harder than a car’s front fender, his teammates watching on in wonder when he bench-pressed 140 kilograms during pre-season.
But he is an honest soul, too, when describing his passions away from helping his club win.
“I always said if I was as good at motorbike riding as I was at my footy I probably would have picked that. It is a pretty expensive sport to get into. I was genuinely better at footy at a young age, so I stuck with footy,” McCreery said.
The truth is he stuck with footy until he didn’t, drawing back from the South Australian pathway program after missing out on being drafted to start a carpentry apprenticeship and play local footy with his mates at Cove Football Club in South Australia.
There was no grand plan, but now that he has spent two years at Collingwood since the Magpies picked him up at No.44 in the 2020 national draft, he describes that time playing local football as a great investment.
Beau McCreery isn’t consumed by football but he loves playing a game that gives so much joy to others. Credit:AFL Photos
“A lot of people get drafted and they have not done much in life. They have gone to school and played footy and gone straight into the AFL. It’s a pretty big jump,” McCreery said.
“Not to say they don’t live life, but I lived life a little bit to be honest with you. I was a 17 or 18-year-old kid playing local football, I did not have the commitments everyone else had apart from work. You can be a bit more of a teenager in a way. I had a lot of fun and a lot of experiences that I think I am better off for having.
“A lot of kids come in very inexperienced because they haven’t seen the world. That helped me for sure. I’m not saying I would not have liked getting picked up at 18 but definitely don’t think I was in the position to be drafted at 18.”
When he was drafted, he knew how to expend his energy in ways that would make him perform and stay happy.
He respects the fact that his forwards coach Hayden Skipworth encourages him to watch footage but doesn’t badger him to do so because he knows that isn’t necessarily going to bring the best out of him.
Before the round 19 match against Essendon, McCreery admits he was at a loose end, so he watched some vision of his upcoming opponents. He concedes it helped, but it is yet to override his overall feeling that he is better off preparing in a way that keeps a sense of footballing adventure alive.
“I do like not knowing who I am playing on because I am not thinking ‘I have to play on this guy and he is a gun’ because it would make me nervous,” McCreery said.
“I roll out and he might not know who I am, and I don’t know who he is, so we find out on the day, which I like. It’s sort of cool.”
More people discovered who the hairy McCreery was after his fierce pressure turned the round 17 game against North Melbourne, but it was his last-quarter goal from the boundary against Carlton to help the Magpies to their unlikely round-23 victory that made him a household name.
Rookie coach Craig McRae has had a positive influence on the teamCredit:Getty
Despite not being a footy head, he appreciates the excitement such wins generate among fans.
He only has to speak to the nine-year-old brother of his partner Kyah to appreciate what footy means to people. He took Charlie to a game, bought him a Collingwood jumper with No.31 on the back and loves seeing how excited he gets about the football.
He also feeds off the enthusiasm of his rookie coach Craig McRae who has given the 32-game player confidence his game can grow off the back of his tackling and chasing.
The coach’s immediate response to the three-bounce run he took in the third quarter against Carlton, which could have led to a goal but became a turnover after he looked to pass to Patrick Lipinski inside 50, was encouraging.
“He said, ‘I’m so excited when you get the ball in your hand. Back yourself in’,” McCreery said.
“I knew [Adam] Saad was chasing me so that was in the back of my mind. He’s got some wheels as well. Both [coaches] have been massive on believing in myself and my ability to run and carry the ball and break tackles.”
McCreery is football’s easy rider, another unique model created away from the game’s assembly line.
