Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown believes there’s a growing frustration at Collingwood as opposing teams seem to have figured out the defending premiers’ strategy. The Magpies have been a dominant force in the AFL in recent years, but their results in 2024 have been inconsistent. Brown thinks that Collingwood coach Craig McRae is feeling the pressure and becoming increasingly frustrated with his team’s overall performance.
Collingwood has won only two of their last five games, giving them a record of 8-5-2, and they are just one win ahead of falling out of the top eight. Last week, the Magpies suffered an 11-point loss to the Gold Coast Suns, a sharp contrast to last season’s matchup where they dominated the Suns 120-42.
That heavy defeat led to the sacking of their former coach Stuart Dew, with Damien Hardwick stepping in as the new head coach. Brown suggests that last week’s loss showed that teams once intimidated by the Magpies no longer fear them, leaving McRae searching for solutions.
“I’m just putting something on the table here—I can sense frustration from Craig McRae,” Brown said on Fox Footy’s *On the Couch*. “After their performance on Saturday, and considering what happened a couple of weeks ago against North Melbourne when they just scraped by, I’m sensing an underlying frustration coming out of Collingwood, especially from the coaching staff, particularly Craig McRae.”
