Collingwood’s freefall last season — after winning the 2023 flag — seemed like a blip as they vanquished all in their path this season to lead the AFL for most of the year.

Now after losing five of their last six games the once infallible Pies again look very fallible.

Coach Craig “Fly” McRae’s optimism had his players believing that they could do anything, especially win the close games and, most of the time, they did.

A blistering start and an irresistible finish. There was an inevitability about the result. The Pies would narrowly win.

Whether you loved or hated them, the Pies were the most exciting team to watch.

The title “comeback kings” wasn’t a cliché, it was their identity.

In 2022 and 2023, Collingwood won an astonishing 12 consecutive matches when trailing at three-quarter time.

While an injury ravaged 2024 didn’t go to plan, 2025 started out perfectly.

The Pies quickly became the team to beat, proving to their critics that they were no longer too old and too slow and were 10 points clear on top.

Fast-forward to round 23 and their aura hasn’t just faded away, it’s vanished spectacularly. The manner of their defeats since round 18 has been what will worry McRae the most as they face a must win match against Melbourne to keep their top four dreams alive.

The kings of the close finish have surrendered their crown, failing to get across the line in the three close finishes — losing to the Gold Coast by six points, Fremantle by one and Adelaide by three.

Week in, week out, Fly maintained his optimistic outlook but admitted in his post-game press conference following their 64-point loss to Hawthorn, that “you can’t sugar-coat” their “really poor” performance.

Fly said his team looked disconnected in ball movement and unorganised when defending the ground.

In a struggling backline, it has become clear that the Pies have not been able to adequately replace key defender Nathan Murphy after his medical retirement in 2024.

Darcy Moore, Isaac Quaynor and Billy Frampton look a shell of their former selves and Dan Houston hasn’t got out of first gear in the black and white.

On top of this, the performances of Collingwood’s most important players have simultaneously plummeted in the last six rounds.

Jamie Elliott, below, has gone from the 15th highest rated player in the AFL, a Coleman medal threat and an All-Australian lock in to kicking four goals in the last month and ranking 315th.

Veteran Steele Sidebottom was ranked 44th between rounds 1-17 and has now found himself outside the top 200.

Even Jack Crisp, who is Collingwood’s Mr Consistent, has fallen from 12th to 105th.

The truth is, Collingwood built their identity on being relentless, a team where everyone played their roles in a well-organised system.

A system that stood up in the most intense, high-pressure moments. Teams were intimidated by their relentless will to win from anywhere.

But that fear has completely evaporated. Rivals no longer panic when Collingwood surge; they absorb it, counterattack, and finish stronger.

Their aura wasn’t about their stars and big names. It was an unwavering belief, and I don’t see that belief any more.

I see a hesitancy from the players to bite off the killer pass into the corridor. I see a reluctance to play-on and give line-breaking handball receive.

We almost never see a horizontal line of Magpies running together and handballing in waves, once their trademark. Instead, it’s slow, predictable and uninspiring.

Very un-Collingwood.

McRae deserves his credit for building the culture that made Collingwood so dangerous.

But now he faces his biggest test yet: reclaiming the Collingwood aura that made them unstoppable.