{"id":377582,"date":"2024-03-19T10:06:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T11:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377582"},"modified":"2024-03-19T13:03:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T13:03:05","slug":"why-magpies-like-the-challenge-of-0-2-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377582","title":{"rendered":"Why Magpies 'like' the challenge of 0-2 start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood<\/a> coach Craig McRae<\/a> has decided to embrace the challenge of beginning their premiership defence 0-2 as pressure mounts to back up last year's top-of-the-table finish.<\/p>\n

The Magpies suffered a 33-point loss to Sydney at the MCG in round one<\/a>, a week after their 32-point loss at the hands of GWS in Opening Round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They'll now take on the winless Saints at the MCG on Thursday night, with St Kilda coach Ross Lyon throwing out a challenge for last year's champions.<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Knights swing the axe as legend predicts epic fall<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Gould's brutal Latrell truth as 2am Vegas detail revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeff"It's a brutal competition," Lyon said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

"I don't think the switch just gets flicked.<\/p>\n

\"Brayden<\/p>\n

"You just don't flick a switch in AFL footy. You have either done the work or you haven't. And you can either bring it to life or you can't."<\/p>\n

When asked if he believes Collingwood has put in the work during the off season, Lyon remained coy, setting up a big question mark for the Pies to answer in round two.<\/p>\n

Footy Classified is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via<\/strong><\/em> Apple<\/strong><\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/em> Spotify<\/strong><\/em><\/a> or<\/strong><\/em> Google Podcasts<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"I don't know. We are about to find out," he said.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Despite Lyon's lack of belief in the Magpies, McRae says he and his team are embracing the early challenges.<\/p>\n

\"Craig<\/p>\n

"Nothing's easy in this world. And we like it like that," McRae said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

"Life's hard. And we actually like the challenges.<\/p>\n

"This group is a very determined group. We're not standing still, we're still trying to grow and improve ourselves."<\/p>\n

McRae took over from Nathan Buckley at the start of 2022, taking the Pies from the bottom of the ladder to a preliminary final in his first year, then on to win a flag in 2023.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Cornes<\/p>\n

"I can say last year was a bit more challenging than this year. Last year we had a lot of challenges. People forget that," he said.<\/p>\n

Collingwood lost three of their last five games heading into September last year, with fears they would not be able to stand up when they needed too.<\/p>\n

They were able to go on to win the club's 16th V\/AFL premiership.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Collingwood<\/p>\n

"I do recall that later in the year last year that apparently we were no chance to win the premiership because no one had won the premiership having lost three of the last five (home and away games)," McRae said.<\/p>\n

"We'll just keep working better to get better at what we're doing, and we've got work to do."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has decided to embrace the challenge of beginning their premiership defence 0-2 as pressure mounts to back up last year's top-of-the-table […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":376682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377587,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377582\/revisions\/377587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/376682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}