If any team can inspire more confidence in its legitimacy from losses than from wins, it’s Collingwood in 2025.
Seeing the Magpies be defeated is unusual. It’s almost a modern-day miracle when it happens at the MCG.
Two losses in a row? Unheard of this season.
But that’s the luxury of being the best team in it.
Sure, the results have made the run home a lot more interesting for the Magpies, jostling for a home double chance and facing the two teams that seek to displace them in Brisbane and Adelaide – the latter on the road.
In the grand scheme of things, though, two losses in the dead of winter, a period of time notorious for lower quality footy on offer, having already established themselves as 2025’s team … they’re almost irrelevant. Particularly with the way the Pies have played as a group.
Over the last fortnight, we’ve seen a one-goal loss to Gold Coast having nearly overrun a hefty deficit, and a one-point loss to Fremantle that came from a winning position. Opposite ends of the spectrum, maybe leaving a sour taste for those focusing on weekly results, but encouraging in terms of the Pies’ approach to the game.
Against the Suns, they struggled to transition the ball in the first two and a half quarters, and were goalless until that very point. From there, they ended up hitting the front, before falling short.
Of course, the Suns played well and outworked the Magpies in midfield, but it’s also true that execution was an issue for the ladder-leaders. If they have even a below-average first half in front of goal, it’s a completely different game.
Collingwood aren’t a team that generate a lot of scoring out of their back half, and if the midfielders break even in stoppages, it’s a complete win for them. What they suffered from against the Suns was not a surprise, nor was it some transformative exposé by Damien Hardwick that has opened the door for opposition teams to target them.
The Pies’ issue was execution – in front of goal, in hitting targets in transition and in defensive contests. They tidied it up largely in the second half, we got to see Josh Daicos’ dynamism through the middle and ability to find free teammates in more advanced positions, and they were back in the game in a flash.
Josh Daicos is playing some sort of game!
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) July 11, 2025
Unbelievably, the Pies are RIGHT in this. ????
???? Watch #AFLSunsPies on Ch.504 or stream on Kayo: https://t.co/N16YR75hTd
???? MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/7SbfxJnFzr pic.twitter.com/3UwRbzsUTZ
This is one of the best teams in the league at generating shots from marks inside 50, due to their knack of hitting targets using the ball safely. That’s exactly how the last quarter and a half played out against the Suns.
The loss to Fremantle. was a really good, bruising spectacle. Sure, it was ugly, fiery, and with lots of ebbs and flows, but we learned a lot about two teams seeking to compete at the pointy end of September.
We learned that Darcy Moore has had a really good season, despite what many tend to let their perceptions allow them to think – but he is so heavily reliant on help from his fellow defenders in order for him and his team to excel.
Despite the loss, the pressure game was off the charts for Collingwood, a team that has been amongst the league’s best in terms of generating scores from forward half turnovers. 35 tackles inside 50 is an incredible effort regardless of the result.
That pressure, combined with an uncharacteristically elevated contested possession game, were the way the Magpies counteracted the Dockers’ elite structural defence, which didn’t allow them to take uncontested marks around the ground or be effective with their ball movement.
You won’t see a much lower disposal efficiency from the Magpies than against Fremantle. They were forced into a more combative style through the middle, so Craig McRae embraced it, rather than counteracting too explicitly from the coaches box.
Late in the game, the bruising contest left them susceptible defensively after all the pressure they put on up the field to restrict Fremantle’s ability to move the ball with purpose. They were opened up by Patrick Voss, a player who has the burst speed and general desire to attack that Moore struggles to defend without help.
Voss has SIX and makes it a FOUR POINT GAME ????????
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) July 20, 2025
???? Watch #AFLPiesFreo on Ch.503 or stream on Kayo: https://t.co/N16YR75hTd
???? MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/u5exub0PwE pic.twitter.com/0aCRk1fLk8
Given the style of game, McRae decided to let Nick Daicos spend more time across half-back and on the outside. He won’t rest his star, given the Brownlow is there for the taking, but if you can call a 43-disposal effort the equivalent of in-game cautiousness, it was this.
Fremantle are, in truth, probably the team best suited to match up against the Magpies and force changes, which is what eventuated. But what shouldn’t be ignored is McRae’s willingness to challenge his team in a different way.
Their pressure was incredible, but not against the team’s general ethos. The higher handballing, in-and-under wins, getting the ball forward at all costs rather than neat offensive approaches, are all things that are needed sometimes. While they didn’t get the four points, they executed them extremely well.
What the last couple of weeks have shown is that the Magpies have tactical gears, which we knew already, but it was good to see them challenged. Also on display is that if their ability to execute is their biggest weakness, they are in great stead.
This has all been an absolute luxury for a team that had breathing space not just in the top four, not just in the top two, but on top of the ladder.
Jamie Elliott celebrates a goal. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Over the past fortnight, we’ve seen Brody Mihocek, Patrick Lipinski, Jeremy Howe, Dan Houston and Tim Membrey, absolutely vital players, be rested.
Then there’s Billy Frampton, who has been sorely missed, getting the recovery time he needed, too. Who knows where Jordan De Goey or Bobby Hill sit, but both will have vital roles if they return, as they did in 2023. Tom Mitchell, too, is at worst a solid depth piece.
For Collingwood to have the ability to give players time off to rest or recover while maintaining the spirit and ethos that McRae has built, and showing necessary tactical and structural versatility across challenging situations, shows the depth and connectiveness that inevitably ties all premiership teams together.
Clearly, the Pies aren’t infallible, but no club ever is in modern footy.
Collingwood have still only lost four games, three by a goal or less, even if two have been in the last two weeks.
If they’re opened up defensively, they can use pressure to restrict the opposition’s attacking opportunities. If they can’t hit targets, they can bash into them. If they need a spark, they can get creative off half-back, or double down on pressure players in the middle.
If the focus was more on July wins than capitalising on the luxury of list and tactical management, then the Pies would be facing a straight-sets exit in just six weeks’ time.
Instead, they have come away from a fortnight’s worth of losses with more to celebrate than commiserate – and that’s a scary thought for everyone else.
Dem Panopouloshttps://www.theroar.com.au/2025/07/25/theyve-lost-two-in-a-row-but-heres-why-you-should-be-more-confident-in-the-pies-premiership-chances-than-before/They’ve lost two in a row – but here’s why you should be MORE confident in the Pies’ premiership chances than before
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