COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse has refused to use his side's heavy injury toll as an excuse for Monday night's thrashing at the hands of St Kilda.
Josh Fraser (posterior cruciate ligament), Travis Cloke (hamstring), Dane Swan (knee) and Dale Thomas (sore) all left the game in the last quarter which Malthouse admitted it make things difficult, but didn't change the outcome.
"We didn't have enough numbers at the end of the day to virtually put people on the ground. Things that went wrong? Practically all things went wrong from quarter time onwards," Malthouse said.
"When you do get a couple of injuries the thing that comes back to whack you is you don't have the maneuverability within the structure on the bench to aid the blokes out there.
"But the damage was done – let's face facts. We could have lost those blokes at the 29-minute mark of the last quarter. It was not going to make any difference to the game … but it does stretch you."
The coach refused to elaborate on the severity of the injuries until the players were properly assessed, but said forced changes were likely for next week's clash with Carlton.
The heavy toll compounds the injury crisis at the Lexus Centre with Leon Davis (adductor) and Paul Medhurst (ankle) late withdrawals from the side defeated by 88 points at Docklands.
The absence of Alan Didak (hamstring) and Ben Johnson (leg fracture) continues to hurt the Magpie cause, but Malthouse refused to bemoan the string of injuries to key players that has seen his side slip to three wins and four losses.
"The side that runs down the race is your best side," he said.
"The ones in the grandstand are incidental because they can't get on the ground, but I think they are all the one type of player - ground level players who are very creative.
"It's very hard to replace those players and it was a big ask … but you've just got to make a better account of situations and we didn't do that.
"It would be silly to say that they were out and that changed the result. They were out and the result is the result and you can't change [it]. We move on to looking at who's out of the side and whether they can come back."
Malthouse, long an advocate of larger interchange benches, would not be drawn back into the debate this time.
"Do you really think that we're going to be listened to?" he asked.
"That wouldn't have had any bearing tonight, [but] it would have been very handy to have players available.
"It's Groundhog Day. I said it last week."
Malthouse highlighted the performance of Steele Sidebottom in his AFL debut as one of the few highlights on an otherwise bleak night.
"I think we may have found another one in Steele Sidebottom," he said.
"I think he's going to be a very good footballer for us. He's a bit light – is he ready? – I'm not 100 per cent sure, but he's certainly going to be something in the future for us."
