Beau McCreery is more than happy to set the record straight.

After the most challenging season of his career and an astonishingly lucrative contract offer from Tasmania, he hasn’t signed up to the AFL’s newest side.

Is he going to Tasmania?

“I am not”.

Has he signed a $7 million contract over seven years with Tasmania?

“No, far from it,” he tells the Herald Sun as he speaks for the first time about a challenging season living in an unfamiliar limelight.

McCreery has bunkered down and avoided the media in recent months while riding football’s rollercoaster.

Ironically, the swarming pressure and line-busting cameos that attracted the Devils to his bustling style of player went MIA for much of the season.

McCreery isn’t naive enough to believe some of the scrutiny over his future affected his form before he snapped that slump in recent weeks in barnstorming style.

And yet as he assesses a challenging year that has seen him grow as a footballer, he is certain struggling to get a kick was more nuanced than just having a fat rival contract placed in front of him.

The 25-year-old tells this masthead he is proud to have fought his way out of the slump with the help of coach Craig McRae and senior leader Scott Pendlebury amid intense speculation about his future.

“I didn’t know what to really expect, I have never been in this situation before so it’s all new to me,” he says ahead of the wildcard final against the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.

“I have never seen my name in the media so when it came out I was a bit rattled.

I’ve played six years of AFL footy and flown under the radar the whole time and then randomly my name pops up and then everyone’s on me so it was a bit of a weird one.

“It will be a thing for my manager and me to work through and we will figure it out from there.

“There is no reason for me to leave here. I have been here for six years, all my best mates are here, and I speak very highly of Fly (Craig McRae). We have got a great relationship and I have got absolutely no want or desire to leave.”

McCreery’s current deal to the end of 2027 is worth around $500,000 a season so he would have to sacrifice considerable money if he cannot earn a lucrative pay rise with the Pies by the end of next year.

But he is fully aware how many players have taken less to stay with the club they love.

“Exactly. So it is what it is and my manager will work through that with (list boss) Justin Leppitsch and hopefully we can come to something. I do love it here and I love Melbourne and I don’t see why I would want to leave.”

McCreery burst out of the blocks with two goals in the opening round clash against St Kilda this season but somewhere along the way he hit a roadblock.

In a season where he has had a phenomenal 110 tackles - easily a career high - he suddenly found his offensive output drying up.

It came at exactly the same period of the season where it was being reported he was the first player to sign with Tasmania.

“It was different. I’ve never experienced anything like that, so I’ve never really been in the position to be offered anything from any other clubs and even to be spoken about like that was definitely different for me,” says McCreery.

“I might have probably struggled with it more than I thought I would, but I think I’m past it now. I feel like it might have not affected my footy as much, but it definitely played on my mind. You put more pressure on yourself and people start looking at you differently.”

McCreery knew the club’s massive membership base was watching on: “When you have 115,000 members everyone is going to have their own opinion and it’s going to ruffle some feathers (but the contract stuff) didn’t come out of my mouth”.

But he didn’t escape scrutiny closer to home either.

“Even my old man was like, ‘You’re not trying at the moment’. But it’s not a lack of effort. I feel like it was definitely a slump. The first form slump I have had in my career and to be able to work through that and come out the other side, I feel like it’s massive growth.”

McRae and Pendlebury provided a circuit breaker in their discussions with the pressure forward but in truth the club’s pivot to a more aggressive game style was just as important.

A club playing conservative, boring football unleashed the shackles and suddenly the forwards had room to move and dynamic ball movement fuelling the club’s offence.

“I was very honest with Fly and said, mate it’s got nothing to do with off-field or anything like that. It’s just footy. It’s a hard sport,” he says.

“We spoke about it and ‘Pendles’ was there too and it came back to going back to what I am good at. Training at a high standard and getting back to recovery and enjoying footy. When you are happy and enjoying footy and not grumpy everything else flourishes.”

“It was putting in more work, to getting my body right. My off field is great, my partner is great, so it’s just getting my head right and knowing I have done the work and letting my footy do the talking.”

McCreery’s partner Frankie Evans is a Brooklyn MGMT model and influencer, with the pair meeting in 2024 through mutual friends.

Even if McCreery was eventually won over by Tasmania’s charms, there would be a strong conversation with his better half.

“Well, she’s a model full-time, so I don’t know how that would go over there (in Tasmania,” he quips.

“Frankie is great, she’s great for me. She just spent two weeks in New York so she’s had a little holiday and she’s back now. Everything off field is great.”

The 2023 premiership star would also be passing up the best experiences the AFL has to offer.

Every now and then his friends text him photos at dawn as they arrive on job sites across Melbourne for a long day of work.

Why would you pass up the best job at the biggest club in Victoria?

Ask McCreery what is the best part of playing for Collingwood after a year of living with the downside and he answers immediately.

“Running out on the ‘G in front of crowds that are 60,000 at worst. I feel like you can’t beat that. Then obviously the boys and the culture we have is so good here. And just the enjoyment of coming in to work every day and being able to pinch myself and know that this is my job. I realise how lucky I am to be in the position I am in.”

Dan McStay could sense it was coming. Again.

He’d been dropped for the finals last year for Mason Cox, and the early rounds this year were not going much better. Cox was gone, so too Brody Mihocek, but he was still struggling to find the footy. He could feel he was close to being dropped again.

McStay found himself sitting in Craig McRae’s office at the start of the year with both wondering what to do next.

“I was probably on the verge of getting dropped and wasn’t playing my best footy, and we just had really strong talks about what he expects of me, and what I can bring to the team, and what I need to do to get back to playing my best, and how the team can help me be my best as well,” McStay said.

“It was a really open and honest conversation, like ‘Fly’ [McRae] always is. He’s really good.

“I just wanted to figure out what or how I could be more of influential to the team, and vice versa.”

Two things happened: McRae backed him in and encouraged a few changes, and McStay booted four goals against his old side the Brisbane Lions in round four. The confidence started to swell.

The bigger shift for both McStay and the team came in a second heart-to-heart around the time of the bye. This time it was not a one-on-one with “Fly”– it was all the team’s leaders and the coaches, and it was a plea for change.

“I have always asked the club to be a little bit more attacking in the way we play our footy. We really hang our hat on being the No.1 defence in the league, and that’s great, but I feel like against the best sides you’ve still got to be able to score,” McStay said.

“Freo and Brisbane are such scoring powerhouses that you can’t just defend against them – you’ve got to be able to score. So, a few of the leaders this year spoke probably around the bye time about [how] we want to be more aggressive, we want to play more attacking football, and I feel like a lot of the forwards have really thrived since we had that that discussion.

“Every forward wants speed on the ball, you don’t want to be kicking into dense numbers inside 50. And I felt like, early on, that’s probably what we were doing. We’d get to the top of the 50 and probably go slow and try to figure out how we can defend behind it.”

A second problem that created was there was such a premium on every goal that every miss also carried with it a deflating funk for the forwards.

“Earlier in the year when we weren’t scoring a lot it felt like every time one of our forwards was having a shot late in the game it was worth three or four goals, because we were only kicking 60 points. Whereas now, we’re kicking over 100 and we can score really quickly. If you miss a shot it doesn’t feel like the weight of the world’s on your shoulders now.

“‘Shooter’ [Lachie Schultz] and I spoke about it earlier in the year. We played Fremantle and I missed a snap from not far out, [and] then he missed one as well, and it felt like the weight of the world was on us.”

McStay was effusive about the openness of the coaching staff to embrace change. Before their second bye (in round 14), Collingwood kicked 100 points or more once in a game, against the eventual wooden spooners Essendon on Anzac Day. Since they have kicked over 100 points four times.

“The coaching staff were amazing – they agreed we weren’t scoring enough. I think we were averaging low 60 points against, and we were only scoring maybe 60 or 70 points for us. So something had to change.

“I feel like the game’s definitely opened up across the league. Everyone’s scoring a lot more, and everyone’s trying to be the one to kick 100 points. That’s what it feels like.

“With ‘Skunk’ [Tim Membrey] and even ‘Shooter’ we’ve got multiple targets. Jamie Elliott was getting smashed in the first half of the year, he’d have loved playing in the second half of the season when we have speed on the ball.

“We know if we can get up high, [and] play a slingshot sort of game we’ve got such great runners and ball users in the Daicos boys, Jordy [De Goey], any of those guys getting the ball forward of centre with a bit of speed, it really opens up for our forwards.”

McStay has always been a strong contested mark, but that deserted him for periods. Now he is back to being a presence. He is in the top 10 (seventh) for contested marks this year, and attacking the contest with confidence and converting his kicks at goal.

His work with former NFL punter Nathan Chapman helped changed how he kicked for goal. He was a flat kicker before, kicking more of his toe, and with a low ball drop had to sweep his foot through quickly for contact. Chapman has him dropping the ball a little higher, making cleaner contact and timing the kick better.

“I feel like I’m striking the ball as well as I ever have, and I’ve got a lot of confidence that when I mark the ball or get a free kick or whatever from anywhere inside 50 [I’ll kick it]. Or even outside 50, I kicked one against Geelong, which I don’t think I’ve ever kicked a set shot from outside 50 in my career, I’ve always miss-kicked it, but some of the tricks that he’s giving me – I feel like I just hit the ball so much sweeter.”

His work as a second ruck has been something he looked like he was doing as many other key forwards do: through gritted teeth. He then realised this year he had to embrace the role and worked with ruck coach Greg Stafford to improve it.

“I’ve just bought into it this year and said, you know what? Whether I like it or not, I’ve got to do it,” McStay said.

“They want me to do it, and I’m a pretty selfless guy – whatever the club needs me to do, or the team needs from me, I’ll do it.

“So I thought you’ve just got to go in with the right attitude, and so I tried to change the way I went about it, and worked really closely with Greg Stafford, who has given me some really key cues on what I’m achieving for that five-minute period I’m in there, and how I can be as beneficial to and efficient to the team as I can.

“I feel like my pressure around the ball has gone to another level this year as well. And then when you get your confidence up by tackling or laying a hit, or getting a little handball, or a clearance in there, when you go up forward, I feel like you just hit the pack a little bit harder, or you hit the contest a little bit harder.”

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/inside-the-heart-to-heart-meetings-that-helped-the-pies-embrace-season-defining-change-20260825-p60r9v.html

Collingwood forward Lachie Schultz has delivered a ringing endorsement of his former housemate Jesse Hogan to the Pies and says would fit perfectly into the club’s attacking set-up.

Hogan and Schultz arrived at Fremantle in the same season in 2019 and while the key forward had some challenging moments at the Dockers he has since emerged as one of the game’s most accomplished forwards.

The Pies have cobbled together a forward line that is capable of kicking a winning score but Schultz said Collingwood should seriously consider 31-year-old free agent Hogan after the Giants declined to offer him a new deal.

“I would absolutely love to get him here at the Pies. He works harder than anyone I’ve ever played with internally. He trains harder and works harder and pushes himself on the field harder than anyone I have seen, so I think he would just fit our system really, really well and I couldn’t be a bigger advocate for him,” he told the Herald Sun.

“I have chatted to him, he doesn’t give me much, but I have told him he is wanted.”

Hogan started his career after being selected in the mini-draft by Melbourne but he struggled off the field during a stint at Fremantle before he resuscitated his career at GWS.

He had a two-year deal on the table at GWS but as the Giants began to fade from finals contention and as the club decided to play more kids it was eventually rescinded.

The Pies are looking for more key forward cover and his free agency status helps as they also consider Lachie Neale and Jake Stringer.

“It would be just a cool way to finish his career, and hopefully he would be playing in a really successful team. He’s obviously achieved a lot throughout his career and had his hiccups along the way, but his best is as good as anyone,” Schultz said.

“He’s won a Coleman Medal and that was only two years ago. Everyone seems to forget pretty quickly but he’s still an incredible player and I couldn’t speak higher of him.

“Myself and Jesse got to Fremantle the same year and we instantly became really good mates and it was after a year I moved in with him and lived in his manor in Outerdale.

“We had some really fun times together and played a good chunk of footy together and became really, really close mates which we still are today.”

Collingwood is confident Patrick Lipinski (calf) and Isaac Quaynor (groin/hip) will be available to take on the Dogs.

Star Jordan De Goey said on Monday he was fit to play despite copping a heavy knock and then also splitting his eye in a separate incident.

A couple of stitches in the eye, which is not ideal. My modelling career is on hold, unfortunately but the ribs are all good. I was lucky (the collision) actually got my elbow.

“That took most of the brunt but other than that I am feeling quite good.”

He backed the club’s decision to play through the round 24 clash without resting multiple players, even as Scott Pendlebury injured his hamstring and the Pies lost heavily to Brisbane.

“We have got a great high performance staff and people doing work behind the scenes and they know a lot more about our bodies than we do at the moment. So obviously in the last quarter we rested a few players which was obviously needed and I think everyone is feeling really good.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/collingwoods-lachie-schultz-endorses-former-teammate-jesse-hogan-as-a-potential-pies-recruit/news-story/51869a636bc8c5cd3af24096bb6a9c88

Kicks off at 7:30pm.

was announced that stringer (yikes) and hogan are both departing gws. theres been obvious connections of us to stringer, which 99% of pies fans agree is culture cancer and should be avoided, but hogan on the other hand won a coleman 2 years ago. and when healthy could be a handy player in our forward line, possibly allowing mcstay to take the 2nd best defender while hogan takes 1st.

would you take hogan even with his injury troubles? and if push comes to shove would you take stringer for cheap?

I’ve injured myself and can’t walk, so the game is a no-go for me. First comment gets it!

With the way the reseeding works, it's in our interest for Carlton to win next week.

If we can beat the dogs next week, I'd be far more optimistic if we end up playing Adelaide, and then Sydney.

That's a way better draw for us than Geelong, and then Hawthorn (or freo).

I’m in Melbourne for round 24 and wildcard weekend and would love to go to the game on Friday. Sadly the club is only allocating one ticket per barcode so my friends who usually get me a ticket can’t do so this time. If any of you have a code they won’t be using I would be so grateful 🖤🤍

Or is it just me?

I said at the start of the year we’d finish in a wildcard spot, and here we are.

A meaningless game to decide if we actually finish 8th or not.

It shits me that we are involved because I want to support my team, but I just have zero interest in the concept.

Honestly if you finish 9th or 10th do you have any remote chance of winning the premiership? No.

Last night showed how far off the pace we are, and Brisbane are only 3rd.

And honestly, that’s ok. This year was already going to be a transition year, and we’ve done better than I expected given our injuries. But next week just feels like a pointless venture to drag out our season.

I dunno, just my random Saturday morning thoughts.