Both Collingwood coach Craig McRae and West Coast coach Andrew McQualter have played down the tension between the two sides in the moments following Jamie Elliott's injury.
Elliott got injured in the late stages of Scott Pendelbury's record-breaking game which Collingwood won by 10 points, landing awkwardly after taking a mark.
Pies players remonstrated with West Coast defender Tylar Young, appearing to believe he contributed to Elliott's injury.
"You're vulnerable when you're in the air, I watched the replay, I was more concerned about Jamie, watching his body movements and the actual incident. Speaking to Jamie afterwards he said 'why did I go for that mark' because he normally just bodies and when the ball hits the ground...he just felt really vulnerable," McRae said.
"This is the athlete, he said he felt in the air 'oh no'. This is how he can see the game at such a slow speed at times but it's hard to comment on the incident itself."
McQualter defended his player and sent his best wishes to Elliott.
"Firstly, I really hope Jamie's okay. It looked like a nasty incident and you don't want anyone getting injured. I looked at it again, and I'm certain Tylar Young did nothing wrong in that marking contest," McQualter said.
"He was competing for the ball, he was in that marking contest and unfortunately accidents happen in our game. I don't know what they were remonstrating for. It's disappointing Jamie got injured but there's nothing more to it."
McRae was noncommittal when asked on the diagnosis of Elliott, who is contracted until the end of next season.
"Too early to make any diagnosis other than we're hopeful. We hope for the best, we don't know until scans," McRae said.
"He's in reasonable good spirits. We can't rule anything out. Clearly he's injured, just don't know to what extent yet."
Will Hayes was another player who did not play out the game due to a contact shoulder injury.
"It looks bad," McRae said.
"It popped out but popped in quickly. You're asking the wrong person around diagnosis but scans will reveal all. I'm not a doomsdayer but I'm worried he'd miss a fair chunk of the season from here on."
Concealed by a milestone from an ageless champion was an important Collingwood win which the club just needed to bank.
The Pies did just enough to win, with a late second-early third quarter onslaught giving them a scoreboard buffer which was enough to secure victory over the lowly Eagles.
"The game was on a knife's-edge late in the third quarter in to the last, but I just said to the players, it really wasn't about style, points, margins, whatever, it was just about honouring 'Pendles,' McRae said.
"Last week we wanted to honour the jumper because it's got such a rich history but tonight we had a guy who has worn it more than anyone in the history of the game and it was about that and I know I said at three quarter time 'let's make sure we can put our heads on the pillow tonight knowing we gave everything we could for this guy after what he's done for all of us.'"
Much was made of Darcy Moore playing in the ruck after he injured his hamstring in a ruck contest and was unable to play out the game.
McRae indicated that the move of Moore into the ruck was well planned.
"I had great hopes that Darcy Moore would be our second ruck. We wanted to do it versus the Cats and he gets concussed and then you can just see him being his Dad, marking everything behind the play," McRae said.
"Unfortunately, he's got a hamstring again, he can't get himself moving the poor lad. We don't have a huge array of options on our list so we've got opportunities, we've got two (Mid-Season draft picks) at the moment, who knows what Jamie's outcome will be, we'll have to explore support along those lines."
Asked if it was too much to ask him to play in the ruck, McRae said: "I don't think so. We've managed his loads. He wasn't playing a high percentage game time. I don't know, we'll work through all those things, but again his body's given him feedback of what he's capable of doing at this level right now."
McRae said it was an unforgettable occasion and praised the Magpie army for turning out in droves to celebrate Pendelbury.
"I'll never forget it. When you run out on to the ground and see the history of the footy club and most of the living greats and people who have made the foundations what they are - ex presidents and past players and just the incredible history, I feel so grateful to be part of it," McRae said.
"Then you go out and see the crowd is just incredible, visual of black and white. It was such a big game and day for us, we just had to make sure we performed and there were so many obstacles in that.
"The opposition were incredible so credit to them but it's a day I'll never forget."
The victory lifts it to 5-1-5 through 11 rounds, with matches against fellow top 10 contenders Melbourne and Western Bulldogs to prove significant in the club's finals ambitions.
Forward half pressure was the feature of the Pies game when they got on top, able to lock the ball inside 50 and use the territory to heap pressure on and fatigue the visitors' backline.
"I thought our pressure was really high. It was such an arm-wrestle game, we had to sit in it. We thought we could break them at some stage, we could a little patch in the third but their pressure has been really strong the last few weeks. You can't tell me they haven't come here with a mission today, they started tagging 'Pendles', they've come here to spoil the party for want of a better term and Mini's doing a great job with a young group."
Meanwhile, with West Coast having nine players playing their first game on the MCG, McQualter indicated there was a significant positive in his squad playing in such a big game and saw growth within the squad.
"I'm proud of the way we played, for sure. I thought we were really competitive on a big stage. We gave ourselves the chance to win, it's disappointing we didn't win because that's what our aim was, we came here today and we thought we could win but I thought we saw growth in our players and team today," McQualter said post-game.
"Last week, we had a pressure game off the charts to be able to win a game of football so we're not going to have that record level type of pressure every week so for us to play well, be competitive without (our pressure) being where we needed it to be, was a sign of growth. I was pleased with the performance, disappointed with the outcome.
