Collingwood has fallen short, but coach Nathan Buckley says Pies will dust themselves off for Giants clash

COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley insists his team is “still in the fight” after the Pies were overrun by West Coast in the dying stages of a pulsating qualifying final.

COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley insists his team is “still in the fight” after the Pies were overrun by West Coast in the dying stages of a pulsating qualifying final.

 

 

After being jumped in the first quarter, Collingwood dug in to shade and the second and third quarters before the Eagles’ late surge saw the home side snatch a dramatic 16-point win.

Buckley vowed his side, which has responded to adversity in various forms all season, was again ready to hit back - starting with a sudden-death semi-final against a rejuvenated Greater Western Sydney.

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Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says the Pies will learn from their West Coast defeat.

“We haven’t been a group that have dwelled too long. We’re still in the fight and we have an opportunity now to make sure we take the lessons from this experience and dust ourselves off and go again,” Buckley said.

“We’ve been a group that look out for one another and prepared to play for each other and I don’t think we saw anything different tonight.

“Our conversation after the game was around the fact that we’ve spent most of the year learning a lot from our failures and the things we haven’t got right and this group are definitely focused to improve and we want to be better.

“We still feel like there’s three wins for us to get and we didn’t get it tonight, unfortunately. But we earned the double chance and now we need to get three in a row and we start next week.

“We won’t cry over spilt milk.”

Steele Sidebottom and Elliot Yeo battle in the air.

The Pies were winning the midfield battle and led by 10 points at the last change, but were overpowered in the last half hour.

The Eagles came to life in the last quarter, winning contested ball 46-32 and the inside 50s 16-10 to power home.

But they last night flew home to Melbourne knowing this was an opportunity lost.

“We gave up some momentum at stoppage and got done in contested ball. That’s where finals games largely exist,” Buckley said.

“We thought we were able to handle it for the most part and were in a position at three quarter-time to go on and finish the game off, but we didn’t.

“The opposition you have got to give credit to for their persistence and what they were able to do ...we were just outworked in that last 30 minutes and West Coast deserved the win.

"But we will take lessons from it.”

The agony and the ecstacy: Collingwood laments, as the Eagles celebrate.

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