Craig McRae will not use Collingwood’s horror damage toll as an excuse for his or her loss to the Western Bulldogs, or some other defeats that will come earlier than reinforcements arrive.
On Friday evening, the undermanned Magpies constructed a 22-point benefit early and had been two targets clear on the last change, seemingly set to increase their unbeaten run to 9 matches.
But they sorely missed a number of their largest names once they had been overwhelmed within the final quarter of a 15.10 (100) to 12.10 (82) defeat at Marvel Stadium.
More than one-third of final yr’s premiership crew was sidelined, headlined by skilled stars Jordan De Goey and Scott Pendlebury.
“How do you measure that? I just look at what we can control,” Collingwood coach McRae stated, including the Pies had been wasteful once they booted 5.7 within the opening time period.
“If you want to break the game down, I thought the first quarter we dominated and we didn’t take our chances.We could’ve been two or three more goals up than what we were.”
McRae felt the sport acquired away because the Bulldogs took over on the contest, profitable lop-sided clearance (54-38) and inside-50 (64-41) tallies regardless of the very best efforts of Brownlow Medal favorite Nick Daicos (32 disposals, 16 clearances).
“They’re the best clearance team that we’ve played against when you’ve got Bont (Marcus Bontempelli), (Tim) English and (Adam) Treloar,” McRae stated.
“They just accumulate and they wore us down. Maybe it was a bit too far with their talent in that part of the game late, but we’ll get to work on some of those system things we can improve.”
McRae stated Collingwood acquired by means of the match with none additional accidents and confirmed a way of humour when he famous the membership did not make it by means of the week solely unscathed.
“We’ve got no injuries for the first time in a few weeks, but our rehab co-ordinator is under so much stress, I think he got a stress fracture in his foot today,” McRae laughed.
Collingwood (6-4-2) might fall out of the highest eight by the top of the spherical, however McRae is optimistic about short-term enchancment from the gamers he has at his disposal.
“What we are now, I guarantee we’ll be different in three weeks’ time,” he stated. “We’re learning a lot and we’re hardening up.
“We’ve acquired guys that in sure phases of the sport aren’t delivering on it, however I do know they’re going to be taught and this group will not stand nonetheless.”
The Magpies have 9 days to regroup earlier than a King’s Birthday conflict with Melbourne.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
