Come Fly the friendly Pies

The Pies party is in full swing. They talk about the army, but with the last battle of this season won, it is more of a joyous, black and white throng, blessedly free of stress or worry or regret – if only for one glorious day.

While they wait for their premiership heroes to emerge onto the balcony of the Glasshouse, the modern function centre that looks over Collingwood’s training ground, they chirp and chatter like their club mascot, swapping stories about the game just played and the moments that made it.

They also know there is something about this team – something beyond Saturday’s four-point margin against Brisbane or the record-levelling 16th premiership cup now in the club’s keeping – which makes these Pies so easy to admire.

Christina Asquini, a Collingwood fan for all her 62 years, carries the scars of watching her club lose more grand finals than it has won. Yet, in the two years since Craig “Fly” McRae was appointed coach, she has felt a lightening of the Collingwood mood and the burden carried by the club.

“The club has been encumbered by that in the past, that weight of history and tension,” she says. “Fly coming in I think has really changed that and lightened everything up. They seem freer and happier, while still cognisant of that history.”

Terry Patchett, a Collingwood member for 50 years, can’t remember the club being a happier or more welcoming place. “I think they are more connected now, they are playing more for each other, they feel more relaxed, they are very family orientated and very happy.”

For anyone who has closely followed the 2023 season, these are familiar verses from the Book of Fly, the cultural manifesto introduced to Collingwood by the game’s sunniest senior coach.

McRae’s “live in the moment” mantra is something preached and practised at Collingwood since he first walked into the club. Now, with apologies to Milan Kundera, this unbeatable lightness of being has given Collingwood, its players and their supporters a season to savour.

McRae, having barely sat down since his wife gave birth to their daughter on Saturday morning and his team won the flag the same afternoon, explains his philosophy from inside the Glasshouse, where tired players are lounging with their families and little kids wrestle for possession on the carpet.

“We just talk about it all the time; being in the moment,” says McRae. “It is one thing to say it but to live in the moment, we practise it at training. You step over the white line you are on, you step off the white line you are off.

“The reality is, if you are constantly in the moment and trying to get better every day, tomorrow is tomorrow. You can’t do Saturday until you have done Friday. We just work on Friday and do that really well and when we get to Saturday we are ready for it.”

If this pop-existentialism sounds confusing, it makes perfect sense to Collingwood captain Darcy Moore and his team. Jack Crisp, one of Collingwood’s best players in the grand final, says one strength of this team has less to do with its best football than how it responds to its worst.

“We don’t dwell on our mistakes,” he says. “We are an imperfect football club and a lot of mistakes happen on a football field, it is just a matter of how quick you can move on. If you do a bad kick we don’t care about that. It is what’s next – what can you do for the team next?

“The biggest piece to talk about is our connection,” Crisp continues. “Everyone can play to their strengths on game day, but the connection is something we build together, off the field, which helps built the chemistry on-field. We talk about being a big family club, with a culture where everyone can connect with each other. I think that really benefits us.”

Saturday’s most spectacular example of this was Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill. Hill’s father Ian, who travelled from the West Australian town of Northam to watch the grand final, says that when his son played previously with Greater Western Sydney, the Giants coaches discouraged him from flying for marks.

When Hill came to Collingwood, McRae extended an open invitation for him to come fly with the friendly Pies. The result was Hill’s delicate perch on the shoulders of Brisbane’s Brandon Starcevich to juggle the mark of the day.

“When he first rocked up to the club, Fly said to him just play your natural game,” says Ian Hill. “His natural game is to run and take marks whenever he can.”

McRae, while thrilled to see Hill soar to such heights, is also proud of the way his team and club keeps their feet on the ground.

“It is important to me as a leader. As I said out on stage, I am going to be a father a lot longer than I am going to be a coach. I want to role model behaviour and make sure we educate and grow our young men to be stand-up people.”

Peter Maynard, father of Collingwood defender Brayden Maynard, saw evidence of this when his son approached several Brisbane players collapsed on the ground at the end of the game.

Maynard is renowned as one of the fiercest competitors in the AFL and plays with an aggression that very nearly ended his finals series at the tribunal. At the final siren on Saturday, his first thought was to console the distraught Brisbane players and pull them to their feet.

“It didn’t surprise me at all,” Peter says. “He really is a sensitive, caring soul. He is genuine in the contest but after that, he is humble.“

For McRae, it was a satisfying moment. “That is what winners do,” he says. “I want our group to have a certain level of humility and also, show respect.”

Among the black and white throng stretched out before the Glasshouse, there is a deep appreciation for where McRae and his players have taken the club.

For Collingwood devotee Rosie Hampson, it has made for a feeling unfamiliar to most football supporters. “I felt confident this year. I really did. They just know how to do it.”