McRae can free two Magpies with one move. It’s the switch he must make this off-season

2 hours ago 1

Opinion

December 22, 2025 — 5.30am

It should have been the most devastating double-barrelled attack coming out of their back line. In the end, it cannibalised itself.

To salvage something of the Dan Houston trade, Collingwood next year need to go back to 2024 and return Josh Daicos to the wing and on the ball, and – like Port did – the Pies need to make Houston their primary architect from defence.

Dan Houston was Collingwood’s big-name recruit in 2025, but he didn’t deliver enough.

A year ago, Collingwood brought in Houston. They also moved the older Daicos to the half-back line. The logic appeared sound; with two creative talents and punishing kicks to open up the ground, the Magpies would build their attack from defence. But it didn’t work.

Houston was a two time All-Australian half-back flanker in a Port Adelaide system that was built around him, and to exploit his rare right boot. At Collingwood in 2025, he was made to fit the system, rather than having it built around him, and he finished the season looking a slow, one-sided, B-grader.

Most teams can afford one defender who doesn’t play on anyone and has the job of distributing the ball, but not two. Houston was squeezed out of his favoured role at Collingwood and forced to play second fiddle to Daicos.

Daicos might have been excellent in that role, but he had also been excellent on a wing. His creative talents also suit other parts of the ground. Houston’s do not.

Josh Daicos might have been excellent for Collingwood across half-back in 2025, but he’s also a damaging midfielder, and that’s where the Pies need him.

Houston has shown in the past that he is far better than he was at Collingwood in 2025. Given the trade price Collingwood paid to get him, they need to find a way to unlock his talent.

Maybe he will be like Lachie Schultz and will be vastly improved in his second season when he works out where and how he fits in Collingwood’s system. Maybe. Last season it felt like there wasn’t a suitable role for him in that system.

Daicos was a luxury behind the ball, given what the team also needed up the field. He previously won an All-Australian blazer on a wing, and the Magpies clearly need more of that type of class up closer to the ball.

It should also be remembered the cameo he had against the Gold Coast when, in a losing team, he was thrown on the ball in the last quarter and had 16 touches, four clearances, five tackles and two goals ... for the term. It was as dominant a quarter as anyone played for the year.

A year ago when the club brought Houston (and Harry Perryman as a free agent) into the team, Craig McRae famously, and ill-advisedly, said he wanted players not draft picks. It spoke to his urgency to climb through the window of opportunity he believed was open to the Magpies before it closed on them. He wanted to bring in proven talent, not patiently invest in youth.

When they didn’t win the flag, the cost of that plunge was evident at the draft, where they had already spent their first round pick a year earlier to help get Houston in the door. This time they knew they needed to invest heavily in rejuvenating their midfield.

Starting with their first pick at No.32, Collingwood chose three midfielders in this year’s draft.

McRae re-signed for two more years as Magpies coach last week, and has shown signs already this summer that there will be changes as he tries to rejuvenate the side.

A team without a proven second ruck to Darcy Cameron jettisoned the premiership veteran Mason Cox. The rationale was that if they kept Cox on the list, the 34- year-old would always be the first-choice default option if Cameron was injured, meaning youngsters Oscar Steene and Iliro Smit would not get games.

The window on the future from the training track in pre-season suggests further shifts.

Scott Pendlebury has been training with the back line, plainly with an eye to him creating more opportunity for others in the midfield.

Pendlebury the defender will not improve the speed out defence but will help with the co-ordination behind the ball when Jeremy Howe is not there. When Howe was missing in 2025 Collingwood’s defence was as stable as an over-dunked Scotch Finger biscuit.

Isaac Quaynor has spent time with the midfielders, so this is potentially a shift to explore. Given his mix of power, speed and endurance, it is an attractive idea if he can make the transition and not get lost without the game in front of him.

The Magpies have a plethora of young defenders, such as Wil Parker, Jakob Ryan and Tew Jiath that need to start playing. They also need to look more closely at Ed Allan to see if he can play, while learning if first-round draftee Harry DeMattia is up to AFL level, and they will want to give their new draftees chances at some point.

These are not the types of players you can expect to make Collingwood better in 2026 and keep them viable against the midfields of Brisbane and Gold Coast.

But Josh Daicos moving onto the ball or a wing and freeing up Houston to rediscover the game they brought him in to play, could do more to keeping the Magpies connected to the top sides.

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