A driving force for Varcoe

TRAVIS Varcoe has revealed he feels closer to his late sister Maggie than ever, crediting her for fuelling his September campaign.

Varcoe, who will today play in his fourth grand final, farewelled his sister Margaret last month after she suffered a head knock while playing football in South Australia.

He said he had felt her presence throughout Collingwood’s rampant run last month and hoped that she would be keeping an eye on him today.

“It’s been pretty difficult,” Varcoe admitted.

“Obviously Maggie was doing something she loved, and in a way it’s probably the closest I’ve felt to her.

“I definitely know she’s looking over me, and hopefully she does it for one more round.”

He said he was “absolutely” determined to win his third premiership in her honour.

“We’ve got to do it for ourselves,” the Magpie said. “And this group in particular, but everyone has different motivations and the way they’re going to get up and about. It just fuels me a little bit more, I guess.”

Varcoe, 30, had shared the words of his sister with his teammates at training on Thursday, reading a passage she had written in the lead-up to her own grand final — playing for northern Adelaide club Angle Vale — that had been her last game.

Varcoe said his teammates responded wonderfully.

“As anyone would be, they are so supportive and they wanted to go out and train well,’’ he said.

“I thought we did what we needed to do out on the park and trained the way we needed to leading into this.’’