“There’s a bit of bad blood”: Magpies add spice to Cats blockbuster with Henry remarks

Which teams are doing their best to promote their upcoming Round 1 matchup?

That was the topic Tim Watson and Garry Lyon discussed on SEN Breakfast with the 2023 AFL season kicking off on Thursday.

After going through the matchups, Watson and Lyon agreed that it was Collingwood who were increasing interest in their game after some Magpies players made comments about ex-teammate and new Cat Ollie Henry.

With Henry leaving Collingwood in the off-season after demanding a trade, Magpies forward Beau McCreery told the Prime Poddy that: “There’s a bit of bad blood there in a way, they (Geelong) are always good and obviously someone (Henry) has left Collingwood to go there.”

McCreery’s comments were followed up by Jack Crisp who said at Flemington Racecourse on Tuesday that the Magpies may look to get under the skin of their former teammate.

“(There) may be a bit of push and shove here and there (which) might put him off his game,” Crisp said.

“But let’s see how we go.”

Following McCreery and Crisp’s remarks, Cats superstar Jeremy Cameron stated that Geelong won’t let the Magpies get the 20-year-old off his game.

“We’ll get around him for sure,” Cameron said at a press conference.

“But we want him to just stay focused and play his role within the team.”

With hype intensifying, Lyon and Watson discussed how the comments could put an extra spotlight on Friday’s game.

Lyon: “Who is promoting this Round 1 game best? Who is promoting their Round 1 encounter best right now and how are they doing it?”

Watson: “Here’s my number one nomination … I think the production team of (Beau) McCreery and (Jack) Crisp are doing it better than any other production team out there at the moment.

“I just hope they’re on an earner from the AFL or Collingwood or Geelong.

“Have a listen to the McCreery and Crisp production on a former teammate of theirs Ollie Henry.

“They said, ‘There’s a bit of bad blood there’ … that gets picked up from there and then the journalist that’s speaking to Jeremy Cameron, he has to respond.”

Lyon: “We know it will all count for nothing, we know that there might be one or two (scuffles).”

Watson: “But it’s good.”

Lyon: “It adds a little bit, doesn’t it?”

Watson: “In all honesty, I reckon what McCreery said there is probably the truth about what some of the players felt about the departure of Ollie Henry.”

Lyon: “I think Beau McCreery, I don’t think he’s done a hell of a lot of media … and spoke whatever came into his head.”

Watson: “That’s right, that’s how he feels about it, that’s real, that’s raw and that’s probably the way some of the Collingwood players felt.

“I don’t know how it’s going to manifest itself, but in terms of the lead-up the game, we’re now saying, ‘Okay, there’s a little bit there between those Collingwood players and Ollie Henry’, are they going to try and do a bit of a team type thing towards Ollie?

“Then you’ve got the protection of the Geelong players with their new teammate Ollie Henry.”

Lyon: “Then you’ve got Brayden Maynard (when he lined up Ed Langdon), right at the start of the game, Ed Langdon said something about Collingwood, it was the opening bounce and he went whack.”

“At the start of the game there are 90,000 people going nuts, Collingwood are thinking, ‘We were six points off in that final’, he wonders over to Henry and gives him the old shoulder.”

Watson: “The crowd will roar and everyone’s into it.”

Lyon: “A+ for Collingwood.”

Watson: “I like it, I think they went rogue those two though … I don’t think that was sanctioned (by the club).”

Geelong hosts Collingwood at the MCG on Friday with the bounce set for 7:40 pm (AEDT).