AFL world divided over Tom Stewart incident as Craig McRae makes telling Collingwood admission

Geelong star Tom Stewart could find himself in hot water with the match review committee over a bump on Collingwood's Nathan Kreuger in the Cats' 20-point win. With seconds left in the third quarter on Friday night, Kreuger fumbled a loose ball on the wing through his legs.

As he attempted to stop and turn, Stewart charged towards the ball himself and collected Kreuger's head on the way through. As a result, the Pies player flung himself to the ground and was assessed by medical staff before being cleared to return for the fourth quarter.

The AFL has cracked down heavily on high shots in 2024 but the latest incident has caused many fans to condemn the actions of Kreugar. Former Brisbane and Hawthorn player Luke Hodge led a chorus of people who accused Pies player of 'acting' in an attempt to win a free kick in Collingwood's 13.13 (91) to 10.11 (71) defeat.

“I’d say he fumbled the ball and made sure the umpire saw the contact because I didn’t think there was much more in that,” Hodge said. “It looked like a little bit of acting straight after the contact was made.”

Acting for free kicks has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, with Demons defender Steven May copping a fine for faking a head injury to win a free kick. And with Kreuger able to play out the match, it remains to be seen if Stewart or even Kreuger will find themselves in trouble with the match review committee. There was a mixed response to the incident on social media but the majority of fans believed Kreugar made it out to be a lot worse than what it was.

Craig McRae admits Collingwood are 'running out of time'

Collingwood coach Craig McRae concedes his side are "running out of time" to make finals and defend their premiership. The Pies' finals hopes are on the brink after Friday night's 20-point loss to Geelong left them sitting 10th, outside the top eight on percentage and in danger of falling further down the ladder.

They face Hawthorn, Richmond, Carlton, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne in a tough run home and realistically may find themselves not playing come September. But McRae says there are still plenty of positives to take from Friday night's loss despite their chances of finals footy hanging by a thread.

"We'll take many positives away. But also reality is that there's six games to go - time's running out," McRae said. "But we'll look to reward all the behaviour that makes us who we are. But time's running out. Time's running out.

"We've got a number in our head that we thought would get the job done to make finals. This year's been probably like no other. But we don't talk about the future. I know the ladder, and win-loss is where most of the judgment comes from.

"But internally, we've gotta go, hey, let's get Monday really well done ... we live in that space. But we're also realists - six games to go, we're running out of time."

Collingwood's season punctuated by untimely injuries

Collingwood are still without the likes of Brody Mihocek, Jeremy Howe, Beau McCreery and Tom Mitchell through injury, while Josh Carmichael retired due to concussion this week. The Pies have dealt with mass casualties throughout their entire season and to make matters worth Lachie Schultz was concussed in Friday night's game. When asked if he felt the Magpies' injury toll was catching up to them, McRae said: "I do.

"I do feel like there's a little bit of a dark cloud at times over us and I said that to the players this week. But we can't live in that space. Josh Carmichael retiring (through concussion) - those things. We've got to be able to celebrate and support but also keep moving. Brody Mihocek, these guys. But we're not here to make excuses.

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"For most major parts of tonight, we looked like ourselves and if you come watch us, there's a lot of elements of us. We fight to the last second, we kicked the last goal of the game like this is who we are and then when we perform better in other parts of our game, that last second generally might mean a bit more."

with AAP