McRae in tears as Magpies win amid ‘horrible sadness’
A sentimental Before Collingwood defeated Adelaide by ten points, Craig McRae disclosed that he kept his teammates in the dark about Adam Selwood’s untimely death.
It makes sense that Magpies coach McRae and his staff did not have assistant coach Scott Selwood, one of Adam’s younger siblings, who plays in the West Coast Premiership, at the MCG on Saturday.
It came shortly after Adam’s untimely death, three months after the death of Troy Selwood, a fellow former AFL player and his identical twin.
Only a few minutes after they had successfully extended their previous dominance over Adelaide with a hard-fought victory of 11.12 (78) to 10.8 (68), did McRae decide to break the news to his team.
“No book has been written about this subject. After the game, McRae fought back tears and remarked, “We received the news this morning, and it was terrible.”
“To be honest, we had no idea what to do except perhaps give it some time to see how it would work for everyone.
We had to concentrate on ‘Scoot’ (Scott) boarding the plane to return to Perth, so the other coaches were aware.
We thought it could have been the appropriate thing to protect the players since it’s terrible and so depressing.
We shared the sadness with the entire club immediately following the game, though I’m not sure if that was the case. I simply want to convey the Selwood family my best wishes.
Following a stalemate between the two teams the year before, Collingwood defeated Adelaide for the tenth time in a row, shocking the rest of the AFL. The run began in 2018.
With an 8-2 record and the Crows (6-4) in fifth place, it sent the Magpies to the top of the AFL standings, at least for the time being.
Collingwood lost the inside-50 count (55-47) and the clearance battle (39-29), but their defense stood strong without captain Darcy Moore, who was hurt.
Jeremy Howe led the defense and had 24 intercept possessions with Josh Daicos (29 disposals).
Although Nick Daicos wasn’t playing at his best, he still finished with 28 touches and a game-high seven clearances, and Brayden Maynard and Dan Houston also made an impression.
With 26 disposals and one goal, Izak Rankine attempted to lead Adelaide, but he missed two vital set shots minutes before Collingwood took over in the third quarter.
Darcy Fogarty booted a game-high four goals, and the Crows also had strong efforts from Rory Laird (27 disposals) and Jake Soligo (23 touches, five clearances, two goals).
Before ending with 27 disposals and a goal, Adelaide skipper Jordan Dawson had 11 first-quarter touches and caught Scott Pendlebury’s attention.
The Crows narrowed their 23-point lead to nine points in the fourth term with to Dawson’s cool set shot in time-on, but the Magpies held on in the closing minutes.
Earlier in the third quarter, both Dan Curtin and Rankine (twice) missed important set shots.
Jamie Elliott’s goal on the siren was one of three successive Collingwood goals that were allowed to place a pause between the teams in time-on.
“Those costly errors become even more costly in a game that’s really (difficult) to score in because of conditions,” stated Matthew Nicks, the coach of the Crows.
“Fifty-metre penalties to give them a goal or a mark on the goal line right on the siren, they’re just small things that we’ve got to get right if we want to beat the best side in the competition.”
With 67,697 spectators, it was the largest home-and-away audience in the history of these two teams and the second-highest overall, only surpassed by their 2002 preliminary final.
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