AFL world divided over Tom Stewart incident after Craig McRae makes telling Collingwood confession

Geelong Star Tom Stewart could get into trouble with the match report committee because of a push on Nathan Kreuger from Collingwood in the Cats’ 20-point victory. Seconds before the end of the third quarter on Friday night, Kreuger fumbled a loose ball on the wing through his legs.

As Stewart attempted to stop and turn around, he charged at the ball himself, ramming Kreuger’s head. The Pies player then threw himself to the ground and was examined by medical staff before being cleared to return for the fourth quarter.

The AFL has cracked down on high kicks in 2024, but the latest incident has prompted many fans to condemn Kreutgar’s actions. Former Brisbane and Hawthorn player Luke Hodge led a chorus of people accusing the Pies player of “acting” to get a free kick in Collingwood’s 13.13 (91) to 10.11 (71) loss.

“I would say he dropped the ball and made sure the referee saw the contact because I didn’t think there was much more to it than that,” Hodge said. “It looked like it was a little bit of a fumble after the contact happened.”

Free kick action has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, with the Demons defender Steven May fined for faking head injury to win a free kick. And since Kreuger was able to finish the game, it remains to be seen whether Stewart or even Kreuger will get in trouble with the match report committee. There were mixed reactions to the incident on social media, but the majority of fans believed Kreugar made it out to be much worse than it was.

Craig McRae admits Collingwood is ‘running out of time’

Collingwood coach Craig McRae admits his side are “running out of time” to make the finals and defend their championship title. The Pies’ finals hopes are in jeopardy after they sit 10th on 20 points against Geelong on Friday night, outside the top eight on percentage and in danger of slipping even further.

They face Hawthorn, Richmond, Carlton, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in a difficult home fixture and are unlikely to play in September. However, McRae says that while Friday night’s defeat hangs in the balance with their finals chances hanging by a thread, there are still many positives to be taken from it.

“We’re taking a lot of positives. But the reality is that there are six games left – time is running out,” McRae said. “But we’re going to try to reward all the behavior that makes us who we are. But time is running out. Time is running out.”

“We have a number in mind that we thought would get us to the final. This year has probably been like no other. But we don’t talk about the future. I know the rankings and most judgments are based on win and loss.

“But internally we have to say to ourselves: hey, let’s get Monday really good… we live in that area. But we are also realists – six games left, we are running out of time.”

Collingwood’s season marked by unfortunate injuries

Collingwood are still without players such as Brody Mihocek, Jeremy Howe, Beau McCreery and Tom Mitchell due to injury, while Josh Carmichael withdrew this week due to concussion. The Pies have struggled with mass absentees all season and to add insult to injury, Lachie Schultz suffered a concussion in Friday night’s game. Asked if he felt the Magpies’ injury numbers were affecting them, McRae said: “Yeah, I think so.”

“I feel like there’s a dark cloud hanging over us sometimes, and I told the players that this week. But we can’t live in that situation. Josh Carmichael’s retirement (due to a concussion) – things like that. We have to be able to celebrate and support, but also move on. Brody Mihocek, those guys. But we’re not here to make excuses.

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“For most of tonight we looked like ourselves and if you watch us you’ll recognise a lot of elements of us. We fought until the last second, we scored the last goal of the game like that was our identity and then if we perform better in other parts of our game, that last second can mean a little more in general.”

with AAP