Collingwood coach Craig McRae refused to attribute the two controversial umpiring calls in Saturday's close loss to Geelong as the reason for the result.
The Pies have every right to feel hard done by as they stormed back from 17 points down late in the final term to almost steal the victory, with an errant Jack Crisp shot after the siren unable to change the outcome.
With 3.30 to go, a Lachie Schultz shot on goal was sent to the ARC (AFL Review Centre) that the goal umpire initially called a behind. Upon review, it appeared that although Cats defender Mark Blicavs claimed to touch the ball, the vision showed a gap between he and the football before sailing through.
Collingwood was denied a goal due to insufficient evidence.
A minute later, Bobby Hill chased down Shaun Mannagh as the margin stood at 10 points, but was penalised for tripping the speedy forward.
"No, no, if I am going to be a winner here, I don't act like a loser, the decisions are the decisions," McRae said.
"I thought Bobby might have been a bit stiff. I saw the replay, I saw it live, he did fall to his knees, but I still think he's a bit stiff on that one.
"That is a difficult one (the score review) because the rules are the rules, I think it was (soft call) touched and then inconclusive so called a point.
"Do I love that? Not really. But it didn't decide the game, we still had the ball in our hands when the siren was going to win the game and I thought we had other chances to win the game.
"It seemed like a couple of things didn't go our way, but it wasn't the reason we lost."
Mannagh spoke on Channel 9's Sunday Footy Show about the chasedown tackle, adding further salt to the wound.
"That's a free kick all day," Mannagh joked.
"He absolutely legged me."
McRae was also impressed with how his men responded to Crisp's missed shot, illustrating his pride for the club and its players.
"When he misses that kick, just look at the response of our team. It's a testament to the character and culture we have that we get around Jack," McRae said.
"Straight away, there was a group of players around him, I think we looked like winners regardless of what the scoreboard said."
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