IT SHOULD come as no surprise that Beau McCreery's mum loves tackling, given her son is carving out a living hounding and harassing opponents.
Collingwood do things differently under Craig McRae, the second-year coach with the Ted Lasso-like 'anything is possible' attitude and a trick bag overflowing with left-field ideas.
It is why Julie McCreery was asked to deliver a pre-game rev-up speech ahead of the Mother's Day clash against Greater Western Sydney. And she didn't disappoint.
With the Magpies dealt the twilight slot in round nine, the club ensured the players' mums weren't made to pay for that fixturing headache. They all gathered for lunch at the AIA Centre while the players headed to the MCG, then marched across the bridge to the ground before being greeted with flowers and hugs from their sons ahead of the first bounce.
Having travelled from Adelaide to spend Mother's Day watching her son living his dream, Julie helped set the tone on a day that ended with the Magpies remaining a game clear on top of the ladder following the 65-point win over the Giants.
"One of the boys mentioned it and I thought they were taking the piss. Then 'Fly' (McRae) mentioned something and I thought: 'No way, mum is going to walk through these doors'," McCreery told AFL.com.au in the rooms on Sunday night.
"I put my head down and I saw the doors open and mum walked through and got into it and got all the boys up. I think all the boys loved it, which was pretty good.
"She just said go out there and have fun, how proud all the mums are of us boys and to tackle hard, which was pretty funny. But the main message was to have fun."
Unlike Josh and Nick Daicos' mum, Coll, who has seen it all before having lived the career of her husband Peter, and Scott Pendlebury's mum, Lisa, who has seen her son do his thing for nearly 400 games, Julie is still getting her head around the reality that this is her son's world now.
"It was a very special day to meet all the other mums. Sometimes coming into the AFL world you feel it's really weird and isolated. Meeting the mums was fantastic and catching up with the boys was great," she said.
"It is so exciting to watch the little boy that you bring into the world grow up to be the man that he is and believe in himself and do what he does every day, loving what he does, is just the best feeling as a parent. I'm very proud of him."
Collingwood has enjoyed a remarkable rise since opting to appoint McRae over coaches with senior experience to replace Nathan Buckley at the end of 2021, winning 25 of 34 games – a winning percentage of 73.5 per cent – in a journey that reached the penultimate weekend of 2022 and is on track for even greater heights in 2023.
Just like the fictional manager of AFC Richmond, McRae knows how to keep the serious business of winning games at the highest level as light as possible.
"It was just fantastic, she has great character," McRae said.
"We like to keep our meetings on match-day light in the first bit of it, find some sense of humour – I'm not that funny but I try to be – and then we get serious. Part of the start of every meeting tries to have a sense of humour attached to it. Julie was exceptional today. I think we will release it this week and you'll be able to see how good she was."
Since arriving at Collingwood via pick No.44 in the 2020 AFL Draft, McCreery has continued to terrorise opponents with his ferocious pressure, just like he did for South Adelaide in the SANFL when veteran Magpies' recruiting boss Derek Hine used to fly to Adelaide to watch him play for the Panthers.
After playing 22 of 25 games in 2022, McCreery has hit the scoreboard more often in 2023, kicking four sets of two across the first nine rounds to go with four tackles and 16 pressure acts per game to ensure he maintains his spot in Collingwood's best 22 following the arrival of Bobby Hill in October.
"Obviously last year we nearly went all the way and it was such an exciting year. It was a bit of a sad ending, but we've come out again this year and we're absolutely flying. My role is similar to last year, so I've just got to keep executing my role," McCreery said.
"It is a bit nerve-wracking at selection time, all of us small forwards are having an impact. It is tight for selection, but I think we are all playing our role. If we keep doing that, we make it hard for the coaches when it comes to selection."
While Mason Cox produced a Mother's Day masterclass for Jeanette to enjoy in Texas and Steele Sidebottom ensured all the mums in the rooms joined the players to belt out Good Old Collingwood Forever last night, Julie McCreery produced a moment that summed up what is special about the Magpies under McRae.
