COLLINGWOOD senior assistant Hayden Skipworth has been handed the reins at the Magpies to lead the pre-season program across the summer, months after narrowly missing out on the West Coast job.
The Eagles opted for former Richmond interim coach Andrew McQualter instead, but Skipworth's progress through the West Coast process highlighted how close the 41-year-old is to landing a senior coaching position in the AFL.
Craig McRae remained inside the AIA Centre on Tuesday and will allow Skipworth and the assistants at Collingwood to take on more responsibility this pre-season ahead of season four under the Magpies' senior coach.
"'Fly' (McRae) has been awesome for my development and for the development of all the other coaches. He is taking a bit of a step back and giving some space for myself to run the program with the other coaches," Skipworth said on Tuesday.
"We have a great coaching team – they run themselves – and 'Fly' will still be overseeing that, but it does give me some more responsibility.
"I'll help the assistant coaches run training, put the training plan together – we had a planning week last week, which I put together and ran – it is all the overarching things to make sure training runs smoothly."
After narrowly missing out on the gig in Perth, Skipworth headed to the United States for three weeks to complete a professional development block inside Major League Baseball powerhouse the New York Yankees, NBA franchise the Brooklyn Nets and WNBA side New York Liberty.
Skipworth, who joined Collingwood in 2019 after nearly a decade at Essendon in different coaching roles, praised the Eagles for running a thorough process and said the experience will only enhance his chances of achieving his goal of becoming a senior coach down the track.
"It was an awesome process," Skipworth said. "Very professional the way West Coast ran it all. It was a win-win for me: I was either going to be a senior coach at West Coast or coming back to a great club. It was a good experience to get through. I've come to that stage in my career where I need to put my hand up for some of these positions, I'm ready to go now."
The Magpies' first to fourth-year players reported back for training on Monday – along with nearly a dozen senior players – and completed a 2km time trial at the AIA Centre on Tuesday morning.
South Australian Jakob Ryan was first past the post by some distance, while former first-round pick Ed Allan just held off rookie Ned Long. Lachie Sullivan finished fourth, with Tew Jiath rounding out the top five.
After making his long-awaited debut against Fremantle in round 11, Allan was made to wait until the final game of the home and away season for another opportunity, where the West Australian showed he can become a regular senior player in 2025 by collecting 21 disposals, 10 contested possessions and six tackles.
"Ed is an exciting prospect. He is a real athletic beast being a six foot three mid who can run at speed. He was always going to take some time; he didn't play a lot of footy in his last year before being drafted; we've been really mindful to build him up slowly," he said.
"His back end of last year, his form in the VFL, was unbelievable and his last game of the year I thought he was outstanding. He has carried that in to the off-season. We're looking for him to come on even more; we are looking for that growth from underneath and he is certainly one."
Ryan has managed only one appearance since he was selected at pick No.28 in the 2022 AFL Draft and has been restricted by injuries across his first two seasons, but Skipworth is confident the half-back can take a step forward over summer.
"He won our time-trial today with our younger guys," he said. "He has set himself up for a really good pre-season. Hopefully he can get a bit of luck with his body and hit the ground running early in the season. We need some of these guys to really come on and go past our experienced guys."
The rest of Collingwood’s list isn't mandated to return to pre-season until November 25, but a large group are back training ahead of schedule, with boom recruit Dan Houston, free agent signing Harry Perryman and delisted free agent Tim Membrey all impressing Skipworth early.
"They are great people. They are fitting in the with playing group already. Harry was in yesterday and I think Dan got back from his trip from Bali early and jumped straight into training, which was good to see," he said.
"Tim is going to give us some real flexibility in our forward line with Mihocek and McStay. Unfortunately, in the two years Dan has been here we haven't been able to get those two together. Between the three of them, we have some keys that can run, which suits our game style."
Brody Mihocek has also returned to full training after missing the end of the season due to a ruptured pectoral, while Tom Mitchell trained with the main group on Monday after a nightmare 2024 campaign due to a lingering foot injury.
Collingwood captain Darcy Moore trained on Tuesday, along with Dan McStay, Steele Sidebottom, Darcy Cameron, Mason Cox, Lachie Schultz, Beau McCreery and Will Hoskin-Elliott, while Brayden Maynard trained inside.
Harvey Harrison continued his rehabilitation program away from the main group, but Skipworth said the 21-year-old is making strong progress after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in August.
"We're not putting any restrictions on Harvey," he said.
"We’ve got an unbelievable rehab coach in Dean [Filopoulos]. He did a great job with Dan last year. Like anything, it's not always smooth sailing with rehab, so we will see how he goes as he progresses through his rehab program."