A day with Craig McRae 👀

G'day Tim. You're going to spend the day with me, aren't you? Should be fun. Let's go, eh? Leaving home probably close to 6.30. I don't listen to radio or read papers or do any social media, so my go-to is Smooth FM because it's less talk, more music, and all classics. I don't remember my first day driving in, but I'm sure I would have been anxious and had a lot of stuff you don't know, and now I've had a bit of comfort coming in. I like to spend the morning for myself, to be honest. Go for a walk about 7 o'clock and maybe do a bit of meditation before our first meeting, because once I get in, as you'll see, I don't get too much time to myself. This is my daily breakfast. I have a Nutribullet with banana, mixed berries, frozen mixed berries. I have carrot, celery, collagen, and some almond milk. I've been doing this for probably close to 10 years, so the inside's hopefully looking good. The West Coast every morning is pretty good, actually. Very rarely it takes more than 25 minutes. When I started, I honestly was pinching myself that I'm the coach of Collingwood, and I just don't want to take it for granted. This is a small part of my life, and I'm in my 50s now, so I just don't want to take it for granted and be grateful for the opportunity I've been given. Day-to-day varies. If it's selection day, like today, you go in there and the excitement of picking a team, it may be potentially debutantes. And then on the other side, you've got to tell players they're out or they're dropped. So those things vary. After a win, you come in with excitement. After a loss, you try to come in with excitement, with a plan. It's always a good start if the swiper works. It's good feedback. Guaranteed boarder, you'll be on the treadmill or on the bike. There he is. Always first in. Right. Probably the first one here. I love the wall of the premiership legends and the greats of our footy club. It's an honour of the past, and there he is, and the incredible history we have. We've got a plant. When I first got here, I had this saying, water what you want to grow. So I'm trying to keep my plant in the corner alive. Have a look at it. A bit of water what you want to grow. I do have a bit of a creative side to myself. My brain is a little bit wide for creativity, so I like to still get that itch. My favourite one is to do a highlights tape every game. I've evolved a lot, but mostly get all the clips and then I'll just edit. This is my highlights tape for this week. I like tackling and pressure. Had our best marks, spoils, good acts and goals clearly. As much as it's about the plaza, I actually don't mind getting my creative side out and expressing it in other ways. These are little videos that I make prior to every game. I've got to go on the treadmill now. Go for a bit of a walk. Clean my hair before craziness starts. It's quite a big space. What a cool space. We're very lucky this whole thing has evolved so much in the last four or five years. We start every main training day at 8.30 in a meeting with the whole team. It varies some weeks, but basically trying to set up the day. Some key messages, potentially a little bit of motivation towards a new focus or a shiny light on things. Just lately it's been around the opposition in terms of preparing what's coming and what we need to manage and exploit. Ultimately I sort of sit there and be a bit of a participant in the meeting as opposed to taking those meetings. After our team meeting, we then head out to training. Get back, get back, get back. Nice, nice. Hey, do you see the ball's coming to you now? You don't have to search for it, it's coming to you. Well done. See how you're just falling a bit short? Just think strong foot. Yeah, you're running well. Good energy. Strong foot, mate, strong foot. There's an energy today. Hey, we're getting better today. Coach you hard today, yeah? Coach you hard because you've got some elite talent. Or is it like sitting? Just sit a bit. Come back a bit and let the ball come to you. You're going to get out and then back. And then what you're doing is creating a channel. What did you notice in yourselves? We weren't chewing up each other's space. No one was in each other's space. I feel like it's a good opportunity for the kicking. It gives them options. Just that patterning to allow others to play to their strengths. Okay, let's take that into other parts of the training. Well done, great stuff. I've always had a philosophy as a coach to set people up to be successful. If I take that down to process and minutes and moments, I just look at chances where have I set this player up? Or have we set the group up? Have we set the forwards up, the backs up, whatever? Just keep coming back to setting them up. The things we can control to allow them to go out and perform their role and execute what's required. I don't want to walk past this like there's an energy today. No, we're not going to stand still. We're not going to let this opportunity go that we're not going to tip in and look to improve. Let's take this with us, okay? Let's make this happen. Well done, good lead. Zach, great lead, double lead, well done. Oh, great contest. Wow, wow. Hey, Big Roo, let's celebrate that. Amazing. Westie, fantastic, mate. Amazing, mate, amazing. Holy cow, courage, braveness. Someone's got those flashy boots on that you gave me and I don't think I can wear them. I'm just a bit too old for them. These are pretty flashy. They probably are a bit flashy. My press conference briefing is the most important part of my press conference because fundamentally I don't know what's going on in the outside world. I really don't. I turn off from it. I'm immune to it. So it's important that our media team bring me up to speed with questions potentially or going to get around the game or around us, stories being written about us, things like that. So I'm grateful to our media team to bring those things to life for me. A few coaches and players have been asked if hamstring injuries are to do with the rule changes, the speed of the game and that. I feel like teams have turned up too fast for too long. Can't defeat that. We're all having different ways of trying to find new levels. Do you feel like the way that clubs have approached this pre-season, given the rule changes, has been effective enough, given the spate of injuries? Yeah, I think we're all sort of finding our balance of all of that. We want to control a bit of the speed of the game ourselves at times, which you've seen in the early stages. During the main training days we have a match committee meeting. It's mainly just the assistant coaches and analysts. They're part of that. I think our match committees are really important to align our thinking, to look at parts of our game we want to dial in on, planning future sessions, being on the same page, challenging each other around individuals and how they're playing, how we can support that with our development team. It's all around connection and alignment. We have a monthly list management meeting, mostly led by Justin Lepich, and we get together and discuss opportunities in front of us, things that we want to continue to explore around our list and growth. Lots of pre-planning and some reporting back on what's happened the last month. We have side-by-side meetings to end our week every week. It's a cultural meeting more than most things. We like to think that our culture is important. Clearly we've got a strong one, but you've got to keep making sure that you water it so it continues to grow. Just look at this. It's good to sort of catch up with our families and stuff. Darcy, where are you, mate? Just here, mate. Yeah, is this your mum? Talk us through the kids. They're your cousins? Yeah, they're my nieces and nephew. Harry, who have you got here, mate? I've got mum to my left. Mum's name? Natasha. That's my brother Tom and then dad's big melons on the back of my head. Is it just this one? Yeah. We're very lucky to have such a big family. I did a couple of courses around group learning and what's the best environment for group learning. We want our presentations to be conversations, not presentations. So the way we set the room up is integral to that. So we don't have barriers between the players and the coach or the presenter and the screen. So there's an opportunity to come up and explore or demonstrate and then engage. That's probably the essence of why we do it. Imagine you play your best game you've ever played and your best game you've ever played, whatever it looks like, at whatever level, and then we have our best performance around our pressure and our DNA and all those things. You don't have to worry about outcome then. It's just minute by minute and just being the best we possibly can be. Let's have a good weekend. Thanks for watching Make by Army. The day in the life of has been... Yes, mate? You got him yet? Can I grab you for a quick second? Yeah, I'll just give you a sec. I'm set. Yeah, I just hope you get a bit of an understanding of what the... Yes, mate? You busy? Just give me one minute. Yeah. And yeah, the day itself takes us on a bit of... Yes, mate? You got a minute? Yeah, just give us a sec, mate. Yep, yep. And as you can see, it's just a bit chaotic. Are you good? Just give us one sec, yeah. And Make by Army, we're on a journey together, and we'll have some fun. Can I have a quick chat? Yes, mate. Just give us one sec. No worries. And we try to get the job done as best we can and have fun. Have you just got one sec for a chat? Just give me one minute. And we'll have some fun doing it along the way. Thank you, Make by Army. Enjoy the ride.