COLLINGWOOD senior assistant Hayden Skipworth has taken the reins of the Magpies to lead the pre-season program through the summer, months after narrowly missing out on the West Coast job.

The Eagles instead opted for former Richmond interim coach Andrew McQualter, but Skipworth’s progress through the West Coast process has highlighted how close the 41-year-old is to landing a starting job. senior coach in the AFL.

Craig McRae remained inside the AIA Center on Tuesday and will allow Skipworth and Collingwood’s assistants to take on more responsibility this pre-season ahead of the fourth season under the Magpies head coach.

“‘Fly’ (McRae) has been great for my development and the development of all the other coaches. He takes a step back and gives me a little space to run the program with the other coaches,” Skipworth said. Tuesday.

“We have a great coaching staff – they run themselves – and ‘Fly’ will still oversee that, but it gives me more responsibility.

“I will help the assistant coaches organize training, put the training plan together – we had a week of planning last week, which I organized and led – those are all the primary things to ensure the training goes smoothly.”

After narrowly missing the gig in Perth, Skipworth traveled to the United States for three weeks to complete a professional development block with Major League Baseball powerhouse, the NBA franchise New York Yankees of the Brooklyn Nets and the WNBA team the New York Liberty.

Skipworth, who joined Collingwood in 2019 after almost a decade at Essendon in different coaching roles, praised the Eagles for going through a thorough process and said the experience would only improve his chances of reaching his goal of becoming a senior track coach.

“It was a great process,” Skipworth said. “Very professional in the way West Coast handled everything. It was a win-win for me: I was either going to become a senior coach at West Coast or come back to a big club. It was a good experience to have. I I’ve gotten to this point in my career where I have to put my hand up for some of these positions, I’m ready to go now.”

The Magpies’ first through fourth year players reported to training on Monday – along with almost a dozen senior players – and completed a 2km time trial at the AIA Center on Tuesday morning.

South Australia Jacob Ryan was the first to cross the post from distance, while former first-round pick Ed Allan I just retained the recruit Ned Long. Lachie Sullivan finished fourth, with Tew Jiath completing the top five.

After making his long-awaited debut against Fremantle in round 11, Allan had to wait until the final game of the home-and-away season for another opportunity, where the West Australian showed he could become a regular senior player in 2025 by collecting 21 sales. , 10 contested possessions and six tackles.

“Ed is an exciting prospect. He’s a real athletic beast, standing six-foot-three and capable of running at high speeds. He was always going to take time; he didn’t play much football his senior year before to be drafted, we really made sure we developed it slowly,” he said.

“His end of last year, his form in the VFL, was incredible and his last game of the year I thought he was outstanding. He carried that over into the off-season. We’re looking for him to come in even more; we are looking for that growth from below and it is certainly one.”

Ryan has managed just one appearance since being selected at pick No.28 in the 2022 AFL Draft and has been limited by injuries in his first two seasons, but Skipworth is confident the halfback can take a step forward this summer.

“He won our time trial today with our youngest,” he said. “He’s prepared for a really good preseason. Hopefully he can get a little lucky with his body and hit the ground running early in the season. We need some of these guys to really come in and exceed our experienced guys.

The rest of Collingwood’s list is not required to return to pre-season until November 25, but a large group is back in training ahead of schedule, with one rookie on the rise. Dan Houstonfree agent signing Harry Perryman and delisted free agent Tim Membery all of this impresses Skipworth from the start.

“They’re great people. They’re already fitting into the playing group. Harry was there yesterday and I think Dan came back early from his Bali trip and jumped straight into training, which was good to see ” he said.

“Tim is going to give us some real flexibility in our forward line with Mihocek and McStay. Unfortunately, in the two years that Dan has been here, we haven’t been able to get those two together. Between the three of them, we have some of the buttons that can work, which suits our style of play.”

Brody Mihoček also returned to full training after missing the end of the season due to a ruptured pectoral, while Tom Mitchell trained with the main group on Monday after a nightmarish 2024 campaign due to a nagging foot injury.

Captain of Collingwood Darcy Moore trained on Tuesday, with Dan McStay, Steele side bottom, Darcy Cameron, Mason Cox, Lachie Schultz, Beau McCreery And Will Hoskin-Elliottwhile Brayden Maynard formed inside.

Harvey Harrison continued his rehabilitation program outside the main group, but Skipworth said the 21-year-old was making great progress after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in August.

“We’re not putting any restrictions on Harvey,” he said.

“We have an incredible rehab coach in Dean (Filopoulos). He did a great job with Dan last year. As with anything, rehab isn’t always easy, so we’ll see how he goes as he progresses through his rehabilitation program.