Pies win soured by Pendlebury incident

Pies win soured by Pendlebury incident

Collingwood coach Craig McRae said the Magpies went to the Gabba intent on making a “statement” after their poor start to the season.

Only an off-the-ball incident involving former captain Scott Pendlebury appearing to strike Brisbane gun Lachie Neale in the stomach in the third quarter soured the big win.

McRae said he didn’t see the incident and “the tribunal will take care of something if there is something there”.

Instead, McRae revelled in his team delivering on their promise in Thursday night’s grand final rematch, making what he called a “step forward” in their premiership defence.

“Clearly it was a step forward,’” McRae said after the 20-point win over the Brisbane Lions.

“Parts of our game were there to be seen but not consistently in the last three or four games, and in particular our pressure was something we wanted to raise the bar on because us at our best is a great pressure team.

“We tried to make a statement tonight in some ways or just put it right in front of the players face.

“We’ve got to pressure the opposition better than what we were. We had many times where one person was tackling on his own, and that’s not us.

“We got to work during the week on it and it was really pleasing for it to be seen.”