Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Collingwood coach Craig McRae wants the fire without the fines.
The Magpies coach says he’s always searching for the ferocity his players took into the halftime break after their bench-clearing melee with the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday.
But McRae also knows there’s a fine line between entertainment and the need to play within the rules.
The fracas started after Sun Ben Long landed a gut-punch on Collingwood’s spiritual leader Brayden Maynard.
Maynard retaliated on the halftime siren, sparking an all-in battle and fine frenzy for the AFL.
McRae demands his players fiercely defend each other but says it must come with the balance of consideration for the rules.
“I think it’s great for the game (the Suns-Magpies growing rivalry), I think anyone watching that game would’ve been excited,” he said.
“Seeing our players walk in at halftime with a real look in their eye and an energy, as a coach you go, ‘Come on, how do we get that (every week)?’
“Sometimes you have to manufacture it, you want your players to be dialled in and hungry – that’s what we want within our four walls.
“Now, within the rules, but we also don’t want to run around having $16,000 in fines every week, that doesn’t make sense either, you’re not playing the game within the rules.
“Anywhere we can get a fine line of being on the edge, we’re going to hunt the opposition and again we’ll try do it this week within the rules.”
Maynard was fined for three separate cases in the game, including brushing the umpire on his way into initiate the second melee.
McRae knew there was scope for a charge but felt the incident was treated correctly.
“Oh look, I thought it was incidental as it was graded. I can see how you’d make a case for wanting to make a stand of protecting the umpires,” he said.
“We want to make sure that’s the case too.I know they changed the positioning in recent weeks in contact and there’s been a mandate from clubs to make sure we look after them.
“We want to be a part of that, that’s significant in making sure this game operates well, but I do think it was incidental.”
