COLLINGWOOD midfielder Shane O'Bree says he hopes St Kilda can go all the way to the grand final after his side was knocked out of September action on Saturday night.

The Saints earned the right to play Hawthorn in next week's second preliminary final after defeating the Pies by 34 points, and a clearly disappointed O'Bree said he wished them well.

"We were really confident after beating St Kilda twice during the year, and we knew what we had to do," he told collingwoodfc.com.au after the match.

"It was one of those games where teams get themselves up for it.

"They had a lot of blokes who hadn't played that well all year, and I thought that they stood up a bit.

"Hopefully they play well next week, because it would be more demoralising to us if a team gets themselves up for us and then they lose the next week.

"It's very disappointing, the way it ended. I was sort of banking on having a crack next week, but it's not to be now, we'll have to sit back and watch everyone."

O'Bree said the Saints didn't let his side get any flow, but refused to blame the club's turbulent last few weeks.

"We never played our best all night – we were chasing butt and couldn't get our system going.

"To St Kilda's credit, they came to play, and they were on top of us all l night, really.

"Personally, and as a team, I don't think we were tired at all, we just couldn't get our system going."

Skipper Scott Burns was a late withdrawal after being named, but O'Bree said losing his captain for the third week in a row wasn't a major issue.

"We thought he was going to play all week, and he looked alright at training, but he obviously thought he wasn't 100 per cent right.

"We realised that we won last week without him, so it wasn't as if we were thinking we can't win a game of footy if he doesn't play, but it was disappointing.

"After training on Friday we knew he wasn't playing, so that gave us plenty of time to refocus and give another bloke an opportunity to play his role."