ST KILDA winger Mason Wood is likely to face a lengthy stint on the sidelines after breaking his collarbone and suffering a concussion in a horror collision with teammate Zaine Cordy.
Play was stopped for seven minutes as Wood was treated on the field in the first term, before leaving on a stretcher in a neck brace and being taken to hospital.
"It was pretty courageous – he knocked himself out and broke his collarbone, we think. So that's not good for him," coach Ross Lyon said after the match.
"We're concerned about him."
Liam Henry also received treatment on his leg in the final minutes of St Kilda's 15-point win over Collingwood, but Lyon was hopeful it was only severe cramp.
Lyon said the Saints improved on their stoppage work in comparison to last week's loss to Geelong and hinted the AFL competition had cracked the code on how to defeat Collingwood.
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"My coaches – [Corey] Enright, [Brendon] Goddard, Chris McKay and [Robert] Harvey pointed out where we needed to improve. Our effort, we didn't give up last week but our method was a bit off. We buttoned down and got our press going. We got to work pressing the ball and creating a lot of turnovers," he said.
"I thought we buggered it up early, some simple errors at either end of the ground when we had good opportunities, which is more us.
"We just tidied that up at half-time. Last week, the Cats were really good in the contest. We went to school on that, applied good heat and then a couple of simple focus points on Collingwood, a few of their patterns.
"If you're a reigning premier, you've got clear signatures you need to deal with. I think the competition – it may have taken a while, but I think we're seeing those signatures, so it's pretty clear. Often it's hard to stop, but tonight we did a pretty good job of it."
A calm but frustrated Craig McRae bemoaned the basic skill errors that marred the game, having gotten the closest so far this season to notching a maiden win for 2024.
"I actually gave [the players] a bit of time to sit in it, to be honest. A bit of self-reflection doesn't hurt anyone. So I let them sit in it a little longer than we normally would," McRae said.
"The reality is – and I think everyone out there can see it – there's just fundamental stuff we're doing really poorly. Things are a little uncharacteristic to our game, and from experienced players.
"I addressed that and talked to that. You look at all the numbers, and we're slightly off, just a little bit less in centre clearance, a little bit less in tackle efficiency, and inside 50s were a bit of an issue tonight, comparative to other games.
"It's just little things. Little things that mean big things. We've taken great pride in the last period in doing the little things really, really well."
McRae said the Pies conceded 12 of St Kilda's 14 goals from turnover, saying simple errors were being made by experienced players, costing the team with controllable errors.
"I think we can see the fundamental skills are sloppy, rusty, clunky. Just give away goals. The little things you take great pride in.
"I was pointed. Let's get busy on these things we're really good at. For parts of tonight, if you want to look at the optimistic lens, there was a lot more like us tonight than it has been the last two weeks.
"I want the players to hear that, but also a 15-point margin – it doesn’t take much to get those things wrong, then here we are addressing these things.
"I'll show a bit of footage (later in the week). There's three of us. And it's in the middle, and it's like 'you get it, you get it'. No, no, no, I'd rather three guys get it, than one waiting for 'you get it'. There's a bit of hesitation, [compared to] we're in this flow and 'that's my ball'."
