Brodie Grundy said the boundary-line exchange he had with Craig McRae late in Friday night’s thriller at the SCG was nothing more than friendly banter between old acquaintances. The Sydney ruckman, who was central to the Swans’ win over Collingwood, said McRae leaned in early in the fourth quarter and greeted him with: “G’day old mate”.
Grundy’s night was already enormous before that moment. He finished with 34 possessions, 47 hitouts, 12 clearances and a goal, then walked away with the Goodes-O’Loughlin Medal after helping Sydney edge Collingwood in a contest that went right to the wire.
The scene played out near the boundary line while McRae had collected the ball to hand it back to the umpire. Grundy said there was no edge to it. “It was nothing untoward,” he said, adding that “the spirit of it” was good and that McRae had “just bobbed up right then and there”.
Friday’s match carried its own layer of history. Grundy and McRae spent one season together at Collingwood in 2022, when the ruckman played six games before injury ended his year early. Since then, Grundy has been traded to Melbourne and later joined Sydney, where he has rebuilt his form and become one of the club’s most important players.
The contrast in roles made the exchange stand out even more. McRae was on the Collingwood bench as coach, while Grundy was leading Sydney’s ruck work against one of his former clubs. It was also a match played in the heat of a tight contest, which only sharpened the way every gesture and word near the line was read in real time.
Grundy said he had told himself not to expect Collingwood to fade. “Don’t expect Collingwood to go away, I know the character and the spirit they play with,” he said at three-quarter time. After the final siren, he said the Magpies had made Sydney earn it. “They really tested us, I thought it was a great contest, particularly given the celebration that is Marn Grook,” he said.
The picture that emerged after the match was less about confrontation than familiarity. Grundy’s account suggested the brodie grundy craig mcrae exchange was a quick reminder of a shared past, not a flashpoint, even as the game itself was played with all the intensity of a final. For Sydney, the bigger story was the ruckman’s influence on the result; for Collingwood, it was another close loss in a game they pushed all the way.
