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“It refreshed me”: How Collingwood stint reawakened McCartney’s mind for coaching return
Lachlan Geleit • December 13th, 2024 4:30 pm
New Port Melbourne coach Brendan McCartney has been re-energised by a recent stint at Collingwood.
The 64-year-old, who coached the Western Bulldogs from 2012 to 2014, recently spent two seasons part-time development role with the Magpies.
During his time at the AIA Centre, McCartney was amazed by the environment that he became a part of which was so much different to what he was used to having spent time in the AFL coaching ranks from 1998 to 2019.
While McCartney says that players are still being taught with a high level of footy intellect, the biggest change he noticed was the relaxed environment that Craig McRae has been able to conjure.
“It was probably just the environment that I saw,” McCartney told SEN Breakfast.
“I looked at it and went, you know, maybe you can do it a bit differently and the way Fly does it is remarkable really.
“They teach the game incredibly well. There's a lot of high-level football intellect in that club and in the coaching group, but it's also a super relaxed environment and that's the way sport is going and I'm fully supportive of that.
“The way he coached sort of woke me up a little bit. I was still coaching in Ballarat and having a lot of fun with some boys up there.
“But it waking me up a little bit I guess is the best way to describe it, it refreshed me and then I realised that footy clubs are just such a fantastic place to be, especially high-performing ones that do it and have a lot of banter and a lot of fun as well.”
Having been refreshed by his stint at Collingwood, McCartney has now signed on at the Borough as their VFL head coach.
McCartney hopes to bring some of the things he learned at the Magpies to North Port Oval including how the coaching staff approached game day.
“The collaborative approach was around in my day, but team meetings were very much with chalk and with whiteboards back then,” McCartney explained.
“But Fly’s first pre-game that I sat in, it was like a comedy show, I started to laugh at the first gag, and I thought, ‘Oh, jeez, I can't laugh in a meeting like this, but I couldn't stop, it was hilarious’.
“This is about an hour before the game, they walk out onto the ground, then it's like a nightclub for about 15 minutes and then out they go, and they know their role. They know their position requirements and off they go. So definitely, it's been a change and it's refreshing.
“But don't get me wrong though, the level of coaching and education at AFL level is still extraordinary.
“They're still being taught the game incredibly well and it was a reminder of just how many brilliant young coaches there are.
“They just understand people and how to teach and coach so well.”
McCartney’s deal with the Borough ties him to the club until the end of the 2027 VFL season.
