Craig McRae acknowledges his Collingwood side has a problematic area to fix.
The Magpies are currently without ruckmen Darcy Cameron (knee), Mason Cox (ribs) and Aiden Begg (back) which left forwards Dan McStay, Ash Johnson and defender Billy Frampton to do the job against Brisbane on Thursday night.
It seemingly impacted the Pies who lost the hit-out count 47-23, the clearance count 46-37 and the overall game 116-83, with Brisbane big man Oscar McInerney (43 hit-outs, 18 disposals) having a significant night.
But does McRae feel a lack of ruck expertise really hurt his side?
He certainly nods his head to it being a problem area but feels they were at least competitive enough out of stoppage from a scoring sense.
“Well, we scored more from stoppages than they did,” he said.
“In terms of losing territory it’s always a cost.
“It’s something we’re going to have to really work through over the next period, there’s no quick fix to it.
“There’s no magic dust towards it, we’ve got what we’ve got, and we just have to work through it.
“I don’t think there’s a magic solution to it. We’re going to have to work through it, get better at what we’re doing.
“Clearances weren’t a huge cost, it was only half a dozen here or there. Like I said, we won the scoring battle from stoppage.
“It’s the first real game we’ve had of it and I’m sure we’re going to learn a lot from it.”
There was an irregularity within the game stemming from Collingwood’s lack of organisation with their 6-6-6 setup at centre bounces.
They gave away multiple free kicks which allowed the Lions to pump the ball inside their forward 50, forcing the Pies to defend.
“We gave away some uncharacteristic free kicks from our centre bounces from not being organised,” McRae added.
“It’s something we want to pride ourselves on. There’s not a stat about being connected but that’s something we want to be AFL-1 at, and we weren’t.
“I challenged our guys at half-time around what that looked like. You can’t give a team like Brisbane on their home deck territory and we gave them gifts of free kicks from centre bounces that resulted in us having to struggle to get the ball out of there.”
However, McRae didn’t blame the lack of a recognised ruckman for his side’s lack of organisation.
“There’s no excuses for that, that’s within our control,” he said.
“To give up three (free kicks) really quickly, it shows just how disconnected we were for that part of the game and the result is what it is.”
With Cameron ruled out for 6-8 weeks with his MCL injury, the Magpies’ ruck issues will continue at least into next week with Cox not yet ready to return after suffering severe bruising (hematoma) in his ribs and Begg still a month away with his back problem.
They will look to bounce back from their first loss of the season when they meet the in-form St Kilda at the Adelaide Oval on the Sunday evening of Gather Round.