A moment of clarity the morning after a humbling prime-time defeat was the "defining moment" of Collingwood's charge to the 2023 premiership.
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Less than 12 hours after being thumped by the Western Bulldogs, Magpies coach Craig McRae was struggling to get out of bed.
After a promising start to the 2022 season, Collingwood suddenly found themselves sitting 11th on the ladder with a 4-5 record.
There were extenuating circumstances - illness had swept through the group, superstar veteran Scott Pendlebury was a late withdrawal, and they were coming off a third-straight six-day break.
But in his post-match press conference, McRae called the performance "poor" and failed to use any excuses.
"I want to be better than that," McRae said after losing to the Bulldogs.
Almost two years on from that defeat, the reigning premiership coach reflected on the Magpies' rise.
"This is a defining moment for this group," McRae told the The Howie Games podcast on LiSTNR.
"Saturday morning I couldn't get out of bed. I was tossing and turning over what to do.
"My wife comes and gets me, might be around lunch time and said, 'you've got to get out of bed'... and I said, 'I can't'... and she said 'you've got the solutions, Craig, you know what to do.
"Just be you ... be positive, Craig, it's the only way through.'"
After the pep talk from wife Gabrielle, McRae had a "moment of clarity" and declared: "This is who we're going to be".
"I rang all the assistant coaches and said, 'Don't come in on Monday and tell me what we're not doing," he said.
"Go and find the evidence of the things that we're going to be.'"
"I walked in on the Monday with a complete and utter positivity that the (playing) group weren't ready for.
"It was the complete opposite of what they were expecting.
"The positivity was something that made the playing group go, 'Oh, okay'.
"It really drove us to letting things go a bit, and it was probably the start of it (a 11-match winning streak)."
After finishing 17th in 2021, Collingwood lost the 2022 preliminary final by a point in McRae's first season at the helm.
The Magpies were able to continue their rise last year, culminating in defeating the Brisbane Lions by four points in one of the best grand finals in VFL/AFL history.
Collingwood start 2024 as premiership favourites as they strive to win back-to-back flags for the first time since 1936.
Australian Associated Press
