Collingwood coach Craig McRae said the Magpies came to the Gabba intent on making a “statement” after their poor start to the season.
And while it wasn’t perfect, the Magpies delivered on their promise in Thursday night’s grand final rematch, beating the Brisbane Lions by 20 points.
McRae emphasised his team’s focus on pressure and tackling going into the game, which it delivered in spades with 85 tackles – including 16 inside 50.
“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.
“It was a damning number we looked at earlier in the week. Last year we were No. 1 in pressure or close to it, (this year) we’re 13th.
“It almost stung us all, we looked at the number and said: ‘Cmon, that’s not us’.
“So 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.”
