It looks broken’: Craig McRae’s ‘biggest challenge’ for rest of Pies’ 2023 campaign laid bare

Dual premiership Kangaroo David King believes a key component to Collingwood’s success “looks broken” just weeks out from this year’s finals series.

While the Magpies still sit on top of the ladder with one round to go, questions over their flag credentials have emerged after losing three of their past four matches amid injuries to key players.

The out-of-form and undermanned Collingwood will now need to defy history to win the flag, with no premier in the past 10 years having dropped two of its last four home and away games.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack, King said the Pies were having a problem generating inside 50s and, consequently, repeat entries.

In the past seven weeks, Collingwood has averaged 47 inside 50s per game – ranked 16th in the competition ahead of North Melbourne and West Coast.

“They’re small problems, but they have huge ramifications,” King told First Crack.

“The repeat inside 50s is the problem, that’s the trauma – and they’ve lost their mojo. So they’re getting numbers there (to the contest), but they’re not impacting.

“I don’t know what it is and whether it’s a hunger issue … It looks broken.

“We all say ‘they’re gone’ – I don’t know if they’re gone. I just think you need that trigger that makes them get hold of that football first. They’ve lost hunger for that spilt ball – and I think that’s Craig McRae’s biggest challenge.

“But I’ve got I’ve got so much faith in Craig McRae for him to do that in the next two or three weeks.”

King pointed to several incidents from Friday night’s loss to the Lions, starting with a passage of play that saw Brisbane move the ball from the back pocket, win several crucial groundballs – despite several Magpies being in the vicinity of the ball – and burst away from contest to set up a scoring opportunity at the other end of the field.

“They’re not getting the repeat inside 50s where you win this ball back and you go back in, you give your defence the ultimate rest. And they’re allowing the opposition to slip through,” he said.

“Even though they outnumber them more often than not, they’re giving up goalside – and then all of a sudden they (the opposition) are gone.”

A similar passage was then shown, in that the Pies were well set up defensively and had the Lions pinned in their back pocket. But some loose checking saw Dayne Zorko somehow get free at the half-back flank, sprint away from key Magpies defender Billy Frampton and kick the ball long towards Brisbane’s half-forward line.

“More often than not, they’re in really good shape,” a perplexed King said of the Pies.

A third passage, again starting with the Lions tucked in their back pocket, saw Lions forward Eric Hipwood take a contested mark, despite three Collingwood players – including Nathan Murphy – being in the vicinity. It led to the Lions switching the ball into the corridor where Zorko set up an inside 50 mark for Charlie Cameron.

“At the start of the year, Murphy flies for that and he wins that ball back with an intercept mark. It’s one-on-three, so there’s (Brisbane) spares that are out and gone.

“I don’t care how good your backline is … Name your back six from the history of the game and the game’s greats – and you can’t defend that.”

The final passage, which again started with the Lions having the ball deep in their defensive 50, saw the Lions attack the corridor. Despite several Magpies players always being within the vicinity of the ball, Brisbane is able to work its way out of congestion via handball – and a strong Cameron Rayner fend-off – leading to a kick inside 50 by Keidean Coleman.

“This here is classic Collingwood. They want to outnumber and they want to swarm. That there is five-v-two – that’s all they desire. But for some reason they allow them through and the two defeat the six or seven that in the end have to come and defend,” King said.

Dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna said Collingwood’s recent struggles were a result of “a combination” of little issues.

“Probably sitting at the top of the ladder, the ‘hunter versus hunted’ (mentality) and that real desire, a bit of their system is just falling apart, some injuries and personnel changes – it’s maybe a combination of a number of factors that’s led to them with this decline that’s happened over the last six to eight weeks,” Montagna told First Crack.