Collingwood coach Craig McRae admitted his team is “running out of time” if they want to make the finals this year, let alone defend their premiership.
To do so, McRae said they needed to get rid of the “dark cloud” that has been hovering over them.
For the second time this season, the Magpies slumped to a third-straight loss on Friday night as the resurgent Cats kicked clear late to cruise to a 20-point win at the MCG.
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The result severely dented Collingwood’s hopes of avoiding becoming the latest reigning champion to fail to make the top eight, following on most recently from Geelong (2023) and Richmond (2021).
The Magpies could finish Round 18 as low as 13th spot, and with six games left in the campaign, they will now probably need four more wins to qualify.
“Reality is there’s six games to go. Time’s running out … time’s running out. Yep. Time’s running out,” he said.
“It’s just the facts. We’ve got a number (of wins) in our head that we thought would get the job done to make the finals.
“This year has been probably like no other.”
McRae felt that things like Collingwood’s relentless injury list, which had two new key additions this week in Jeremy Howe (hamstring) and Brody Mihocek (pectoral), were weighing his team down.
“I do feel like there’s a little bit of a dark cloud at times over us,” he said.
“We can’t live in that space … you know, like, Josh Carmichael retiring, you know? Those things. We’ve got to be able to celebrate and support, but also keep moving.
“We’re not here to make excuses … I just want to rid of excuse. I just don’t want to live in that space.”
The Magpies have an extremely difficult run home that features games against Hawthorn, Carlton, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne but, ever the optimist, McRae wasn’t ruling out his team from featuring in the September action.
“Why can’t we perform really well in a all the games that are coming up? There’s no reason to think otherwise,” he said.
The Magpies were in the game for large parts against Geelong, but McRae was still scathing of many aspects of their performance.
“We had minus 20 inside 50s. I’m not sure too many teams are going to bode well if that’s one of your key indicators,” McRae said.
“Losing a lot of territory at the minute. Centre bounces were a big cost – 16-6 or something like that – and scores, too. Centre bounce scores.
“This is the game, isn’t it? You’ve got to be good at everything at times, but … you’ve got to be not really bad at phases of the game.”
Collingwood’s injury woes worsened with goalsneak Lachie Schultz failing a concussion test, but in some much-needed positive news, Daniel McStay will play his first competitive match in the VFL on Saturday since rupturing his ACL in the summer and could provide an option up forward next week if he gets through unscathed.
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