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Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says there’s no point crying over spilt milk after his club’s 16-point loss to West Coast in an AFL qualifying final.
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has ordered his defeated players not to dwell on their AFL qualifying final loss.
The Magpies slipped to a 16-point loss to West Coast in Perth on Saturday night, conceding the last three goals in the final five minutes of a gripping encounter.
Buckley knows why his side coughed up their 10-point three quarter-time lead.
“We were well beaten in contested ball in that last quarter and put our backs under a fair bit of pressure as a result,” he said.
“We won’t dwell or cry over spilt milk. We will have to project forward pretty quick.”
That projection focuses on a knockout semi-final against GWS on Saturday at the MCG.
“That was basically post-script for us in our conversation after the game,” he said.
“We have spent most of the year learning a lot from our failures and the things that we haven’t quite got right.
“And this group are definitely focused to improve and we want to be better.
“So the fact we have been able to learn from our losses … and take the next step, we still feel like there’s three wins for us to get.
“We earned the double chance with our home-and-away season. Now we need to get three (wins) in a row.”
Buckley and his players left Perth on a red-eye flight which departed at 11.45pm Perth time on Saturday – less than three hours after the final siren of their game.
“(We) drop into professional mode pretty quick,” he said.
“Rest and recovery is the order of the next couple of days.
“And we will go through our week as normal and understand that we have got a final to win next weekend.”
The Magpies reported no fresh injury concerns, with returning trio Tyson Goldsack, Adam Treloar and Jeremy Howe all emerging unscathed from their comebacks to AFL ranks after injury absences.
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