How Adams and McStay coped with mixed grand final emotions; Howe ignores rib pain; McRae’s hidden message

‘Then it hit home ...’: Taylor Adams speaks about flag heartache

Marc McGowan
Hard-luck duo Taylor Adams and Dan McStay spent a couple of emotion-charged hours together at Adams’ home coming to terms with their injury fate after Collingwood’s grand final triumph.

They were side by side in the triumphant Magpie changerooms before their teammates arrived to belt out back-to-back renditions of the theme song, but were notably absent as journalists, broadcasters, fans and loved ones piled in.

Adams, one of Collingwood’s vice-captains, was ruled out mid-week after also missing the preliminary final with a low-grade hamstring setback that dashed his premiership dream.

There were powerful on-field scenes in the minutes after the Pies’ extraordinary four-point victory over Brisbane, when Adams’ emotions spilled over as he embraced captain Darcy Moore.

“It was high emotions early on. There was elation when we first ran onto the ground [afterwards], and hugged ‘Pendles’ [Scott Pendlebury], Steele [Sidebottom] and ‘Howey’ [Jeremy Howe] — all the guys I’ve played a lot of footy with – then it hit home that I wasn’t out on the ground and part of it completely,” Adams told The Age.

“But the boys and Craig [McRae] made us feel really valued and a part of it, which was really good, then we had a few beers to celebrate last night, and a lot of singing and dancing and carrying on with family and friends.”

Adams and McStay – who arrived from the Lions in the off-season as an unrestricted free agent – leaned on each other to cope with the difficult moment, and needed some privacy to deal with their personal misfortune before they could share in the team’s raucous celebrations.

McStay may need as many as eight weeks to recover from the high-grade medial collateral ligament strain he suffered in the club’s preliminary final win.

“We shed a few tears and a bit of emotion, then we brushed it off and said, ‘Let’s get on with it and go celebrate with the boys’. It was a great night,” Adams said.

John Noble was another sad story, playing every game in the home and away season, only to be dropped for Collingwood’s qualifying final clash with Melbourne and never forcing his way back in.

Nathan Murphy, who took no further part in the grand final after being concussed in a clash with Brisbane’s Linc McCarthy, spared a thought for all three players amid the post-match chaos.

“It was pretty emotional seeing them. You go from one highlight myself to a low like theirs,” Murphy said. “You’ve got to put yourself in their shoes, and see that, but they’re so good. They’re turning it into a positive, and they’re just happy for everyone else’s success, so it’s awesome.”

The trio’s grand final heartbreak sparked renewed debate about whether every player on the list should receive a premiership medallion, or at least those who played a certain number of games.

First-year Magpie Oleg Markov has experienced both sides of the ledger. He played in Saturday’s premiership, but missed out on all three Richmond flags (2017, 2019 and 2020) despite playing senior games in each of those years. Markov is “a big advocate” for all players being recognised.

“The best thing we can do is wrap our arms around them, and just let him feel what we sort of feel,” he said.

“I’ve been on the other side of the fence, and it is hard because you’re seeing all your friends succeed and sort of living the dream that you aspire to have, but I know it makes people hungrier. I know the boys who missed out will be the ones who are training the house down, and pushing the boys who have seen the mountain top. They’re going to motivate the boys to try and see it again.”

‘Incredibly sore’: Howe played out decider with rib injury

Peter Ryan
This wasn’t the type of “car crash” injury Jeremy Howe has suffered before, but it was brutal nonetheless. The high-flying Magpie has revealed he played out the grand final in pain after he was floored by a bone-crunching knock to the ribs from Lions forward Charlie Cameron during the last quarter.

Cameron crashed into Howe as he cleared the ball from Collingwood’s defence, leaving him gasping on the ground with badly bruised ribs.

The Magpies defender is accustomed to extreme pain, having broken his arm in six places after a sickening midair collision in the opening round of the season.

This pain was tolerable by comparison, and he got up and played out the match, helping Collingwood hold on to a four-point win in one of the great grand finals.  

“The incident late in the game with Charlie ... He managed to hit me relatively late, it was probably in play, [but I] got a down-field free kick,” Howe told Channel Nine on Sunday.

“The ribs are incredibly sore but I think if we lost they’d be sorer.

“I’ve got six months to get them right. I can tolerate the pain for now. I bounced out of bed regardless.”

Leading into the finals Howe said the bone had protruded from his arm when he crashed-landed in round one, describing the excruciating pain, and he came back from a horrific knee injury in 2020.

McRae reveals hidden message under the collar of his grand final shirt

Peter Ryan
Collingwood coach Craig McRae had the message “44 sons” written under the collar of the shirt he wore through Saturday’s epic grand final to signify how he felt about each player in the Magpies squad during 2023 as they drove towards a premiership.

McRae revealed the legacy theme when he spoke to players, coaches, past players, club employees, and their friends and family at Collingwood’s official post-premiership celebrations held at Centrepiece in Melbourne on Saturday night.

He said each player on the list did the same, inscribing a personal message under the collar of their own jumper with words describing the legacy they wanted to leave as a person and a player in 2023.

“All the players had inside their jumper something they want to be remembered for,” McRae said.

“It was an action. It was theirs ... when we created legacy, today players ideally lived theirs. In my shirt I had [written] 44 sons. I’ve got three beautiful daughters now, I don’t have a son, but I consider all these guys in the squad my sons, so I wore that under my collar today.”

The Magpies coach said on Saturday night he was yet to return to St Vincent’s Hospital where his wife Gabrielle gave birth to their daughter Maggie at 7.45am on grand final morning. Gabrielle went to the hospital with her sister at 10pm on Friday night after going into labour, before ringing McRae at 6am to join them at the hospital to be with them when the baby was born.

Collingwood president Jeff Browne praised McRae and the players for their character and driving the change the club undertook when the new coach was appointed.

He said the win was “the ultimate satisfaction” for him, and he was rapt to be there after a health scare put him in hospital briefly on the eve of the finals.

“[It was] a bit of pit stop, a little bit of late pre-season training and got myself back into it,” Browne said.

Past presidents Mark Korda and Eddie McGuire, as well as previous coach and champion player Nathan Buckley, Anthony Rocca, Luke Ball and Sharrod Wellingham were among the throng celebrating the club’s 16th premiership.

Browne said the club wanted to recognise and acknowledge that any success was built on the efforts of those who went before them.

“We are one big club. We are Collingwood ... this club has got a rich history, and days like this celebrate that history and salute the people that have gone before. We should never forget that,” Browne said.

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After congregating in a circle in the middle of the MCG where they told each other what the win meant to them, the players appeared before fans gathered at the AIA Centre where the Collingwood chant was being sung loud and proud.

They then sang the club theme song at Centrepiece before Daryl Braithwaite appeared for three songs.

Ruckman Darcy Cameron revealed he could hold a mark better than a tune when he joined Braithwaite and his band on stage to sing The Horses.