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White Ferns LIVE from 7pmMcRae constantly in touch with Hill as hopes for return build
Lachlan Geleit • February 25th, 2026 11:02 am
Collingwood coach Craig McRae is excited about what his Magpies can produce in 2026.
Coming off a Preliminary Final appearance in 2025, many expect the Magpies to fall down the ladder somewhat this year, but McRae doesn’t see things that way.
It’s been a big off-season at Olympic Park, and with just 11 days until their first game of the season proper against St Kilda, McRae spoke to Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN Breakfast on a variety of topics surrounding his club.
Check out his responses below.
On Bobby Hill’s continued absence and when he may return to training
“Bobby is working on himself at the moment. We're hoping that he'll be in the program in the short or medium term. We'll see how that progresses,” McRae told SEN Breakfast.
“But I think there are two parts to this situation… I want to be a coach, and we want to be an environment where we just love and care for our people, all our people, from players to staff, and then there's the high-performance part.
“We're paid to win. You come to the MCG not to love and care. You want to see winners.
“For most of the year, for Bobby, it was about love and support, and there was very little attention to high performance because we just wanted to care for him.
“Then there comes a time late in the year when they become about high performance. That's where it's sitting at the moment.
“It's always a delicate balance of those two magnets. They somewhat collide at times.
“But we’ll continue to love and support him, and at the right time, get him in the environment to push forward for high performance.
“I've been speaking to him regularly, yesterday even. I’m constantly talking to Bobby.
“It’s probably a bit too early to say (when he’ll return), but we're confident that it's progressing.”
On McRae’s own extended break this off-season
“It's been interestingly reported having some time off, but you make a Prelim Final, then a couple of weeks later you're into trade period, and next thing you're headed overseas with the high-performance team to Scotland.
“Then before you know it's Christmas, and you go, ‘Well, I wouldn't mind a breath’.
“I think after doing it for four years, you realise where you can actually take a breath… and early in January is the time when the players are just getting to work.
“The grind is on. I came back and set some clear intentions around new themes and introducing new families into our environment with new draftees, and then I just took a bit of extra time.
“My garden has never looked better… I just think it’s important, and I think anyone who has done the job would realise that’s probably the best time for it.”
What he sees with Collingwood’s new draftees
“With our new draftees, we have four or five of them, and they have all shown something that makes you go, ‘Wow, that’s going to be exciting’.
“Young Tyan Prindable was our first pick, and he’s got Tom Mitchell traits. He just looks really, really good around the ball and composed
“Then there’s Sam Swadling and Angus Anderson, who has come across from Sturt, where he was best on ground in the SANFL Grand Final. He looks like a tough inside mid that’s ready to play early.
“Then the likes of Wil Parker, Ed Allan and Roan Steele look fitter than ever, and he was only drafted mid-season.
“There's some excitement amongst others that are sort of just continuing to grow, even the old guys look as good as ever.”
Will Beau McCreery play more midfield minutes in 2026?
“Yeah, we'd like to think so.
“He’s had a bit of an interruption with a foot-related injury pre-Christmas that slowed him down a bit.
“We sort of weren't anticipating he’d play in the early rounds, but he's really come on strong, and he'll play a bit more football on Sunday against North and really push for Opening Round.
“But he's got such power and speed, and he's really good in centre bounces and around that part of the game, so yeah, we'd like to think so.”
On Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe’s calf concerns
“They're both unlikely to play early in Round Zero, but they’re maybe touch-and-go for a little bit after that.
“But they’re both progressing well, they’ve just had recurring calf injuries, which is just part of our learning around their bodies.
“But they won't play early in the season.”
On the development of young midfielder Ed Allan
“He had a great game against the Giants. He played a lot more mid-time with a few of the players out and kicked a couple of nice goals bursting out of centre bounces.
“He's a lot stronger this year. You'll see physically, he looks a lot stronger in his upper body, and he's a great runner. He can cover the ground like not many in our team.
“The GPS gets really hot when he runs, that really stacks up at the AFL level, and we're really hopeful that he's going to become an important player for us.”
