Collingwood coach Craig McRae has said he couldn’t bring himself to address his players in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s one-point preliminary final loss.
The Pies notched up an incredible number of close wins during the home-and-away season, but lost two tight matches from their three finals.
First-year senior coach McRae said post-game he opted to forgo his immediate address to the players given his emotions were running high.
Watch Fox Footy’s massive line-up of Grand Final week coverage on Kayo including live pre-game, half-time and post-game coverage with full analysis from the best team in the business. New to Kayo? Try 14 days free >
“I left them alone because I just wanted to get my emotions in check. I knew I was right on the edge of being too emotional and I didn’t want to express that to the players,” he said.
“It was more on pride though – of course we are disappointed to lose, but it was more I knew I couldn’t look them in the eye without losing my emotions.
“The reality of this sport is you don’t start where you finish. We start 18th again. But there’s a lot of stuff that’s been built and the foundations of what we want to be.”
McRae this season has focused particularly on instilling a winning mentality in the side regardless of the on-field result.
After their qualifying final loss to Geelong, McRae instructed his players not to lay on the ground as some of them did in the aftermath of that result, telling them not to be “acting like a loser”.
McRae said he “of course” noticed that no players fell flat on the ground after the agonising defeat this time around and praised the actions of his players after the match.
“You walk off the ground and the way they thanked all the Collingwood army… I haven’t seen that happen to too many teams playing an interstate final and losing, and then you go and thank your supporters and they thank you just as much,” he said.
“It’s a special thing.”
Of his desire to instil a winning mentality, McRae said: “I did write up on the whiteboard don’t get caught up, we’re winners only. Winners only for us is the catch cry we’ve used right from day one. Sometimes when you lose, you can still act like winners.”
“It‘s not about falling to the ground, it’s about what we want to be. I put winners only up and I put what ifs and if only. Because winners don’t think what ifs and if only. They just use it. It just fuels you for more.
“There’ll be a lot of people laying in bed tonight going if only, what if and I just don’t want to live in that space.
“Because winners pick themselves up and use the lessons and get better and use it for motivation. That’s what we do.”
