Collingwood coach Craig McRae has apologised to Magpies fans for his side's 64-point thumping at the hands of Hawthorn.
It's the second-biggest loss of the McRae era, with the club's final score of 46 also marking the lowest under his tenure. The defeat came in two-time premiership player Steele Sidebottom's 350th game.
The result leaves the Magpies needing to win its last two matches – against Adelaide on the road and Melbourne at the MCG – just to qualify for the top four, after sitting 10 points clear on top of the table just six weeks ago.
“I apologise to our Magpie army – that's a disappointing performance, you can't sugarcoat that,” McRae said.
“We owe Steele Sidebottom more than that too – he's a legend of our footy club.
“Just a lack of system and then a lack of fight, a lack of effort, sometimes at the same time, which leaves us vulnerable.”
The Magpies lost Jeremy Howe within the first two minutes of the game after he had a big collision with Jai Newcombe, which knocked him out.
The defender was taken to the hospital for precautionary CT scans and suffered a concussion.
“I just don't want to make excuses,” McRae said.
“It rocked us, it rocked some of our staff.
“No excuses, but we hope he's okay, we hope his family's okay, those things aren't great when you're watching live.”
The Pies laid just 42 tackles despite having 76 fewer possessions in a high-transition match, which suited Hawthorn's ball movement and repeatedly gave their forwards a chance to exploit the Pies' defensive system, which broke down.
The Hawks score of 110 is the highest the Magpies have conceded this year and just the second time they have conceded triple figures, having come into the round with statistically the best defence in the league.
“Your 114,000 members expect a certain amount of effort, and we didn't have it, so you get disappointed with that,” McRae said.
“That's because we get bodies in the wrong position and don't move the ball inside 50 well, and don't connect.
“There's more than one layer to pressure, but that's something we'll dial into. When you put that jumper on, there's an expectation that we represent it better than what we did tonight.”
