Collingwood Report: season that didn’t go according to plan by the coach
Like football teams, we are fallible human beings. Within the Magpies’ season, it did not proceed as expected
On the eve of round 23, Craig Kelly and Craig McRae broke one of the AFL’s worst-kept secrets when they called important football coaches and staff members into Collingwood’s Olympic Park offices and informed them that football manager Graham Wright would not be returning to the club. The CEO revealed the information before standing aside to make way for reigning premiership coach McRae, despite the fact that Kelly had not spoken to his old friend, colleague, and former teammate Wright in weeks. The second Craig, known to practically everyone in football as “Fly,” then spoke to the gathering, admitting that it had been a difficult season and that certain important choices and appointments had not turned out as planned. Later, Kelly apologized to the whole crew for the occasionally turbulent year.