Craig McRae advanced from an assistant coach to the main job and has a couple of prime candidates to take over at Richmond.
AFL: Collingwood Magpies coach Craig McRae joins AFL 360 to discuss the news that Damien Hardwick is leaving the Richmond Tigers.
McRae is among the wave of senior coaches who have been recruited after working under premiership coaches Alastair Clarkson and Hardwick.
Leppitsch, who also coached the Brisbane Lions and has a past at the Tigers, has been mentioned among the possible candidates after making a huge impact with McRae at Collingwood.
McRae said there was little doubt people at other clubs were aware of the talent he had on his coaching panel, which has lifted the Magpies to the top of the ladder – and that the club could deal with any outside approaches.
“If that presents itself, then we talk through it,” he said.
“We want to promote our own. I want to make sure the broader world knows how good our staff are – not just our coaches, but our high-performance team.
Craig McRae with assistant Justin Leppitsch. Picture: Michael Klein
“There’s a lot of great people out there whose names we all know; Leppa’s one of those and he’s a great strategist. I can see why he’s mentioned.
“Not only Leppa – Hayden Skipworth is a guy that’s a gem for us.
“Sometimes the market goes by who should be where and I must admit, I was way down the order of ‘who’s going to be the next coach of Collingwood’.”
Meanwhile, McRae revealed defender Jeremy Howe had to “get through a few hoops” before he returns to play following a sickening broken arm, but it would most likely be after the club’s bye in Round 14.
While the AFL team is flying, winning nine of 10 games this season, McRae said it was hard to ignore the collapse of Collingwood’s Super Netball team this week.
“We care for our people,” he said.
“I’m not sure the exact details of why and the business decisions around those.
“But there’s human beings attached to this and seeing the coaches in there and the tears in the eyes, you can’t help but have an empathetic view of it and we just try to wrap our arms around and support them how we can.”