COLLINGWOOD assistant coach Mark Neeld is confident injuries to captain Nick Maxwell and youngster Tom Hunter won't be too serious in the wake of their 24-point defeat of West Coast in their NAB Cup semi-final clash on Saturday night.

Neeld had the chance to sit in the hot seat in the win over West Coast and watched on as both Maxwell and Hunter were taken from the ground due to injury.

Hunter hurt his shoulder in the first quarter and Maxwell appeared to do similar in a collision with Eagle veteran Andrew Embley, but Neeld was confident the duo won't have done too much damage ahead of Friday night's NAB Cup grand final clash with Essendon. 
 
"The only report we got was that it was a solid bump (on Maxwell), and that he was a little bit sore at the time. Given it's round three of the NAB Cup we felt that as captain of the club he could sit out given we had another seven guys on the bench," Neeld said.
 
"We haven’t had the full medical report, but it does appear that it was just a decent bump. I don’t think it's his shoulder, I just think he had the wind knocked out of him.
 
"He (Hunter) copped a knock and he is quite sore in his left shoulder, but without having the medical report and with my level of medical expertise it will stop at a sore shoulder at this stage. I just got told that he's out of the game, I didn’t get told any more than that."
 
Collingwood was without premiership players Nathan Brown, Heath Shaw, Luke Ball, Brent Macaffer, Tyson Goldsack, Leigh Brown and Alan Didak with Neeld delighted at how the entire group stood up.
 
"The most pleasing aspect was that our structures were the way we wanted them in that last quarter, and there were a number of young players on the ground," Neeld said. "That means we are providing them the right opportunities to do the things that we want them to do.
 
"I spoke to the group, and Mick spoke to the group, and we've got some KPI's and structures we want to get in place for round one and we felt that across the first three weeks of the NAB Cup we've been trending in an upwards direction. We want them to do that next week as well."
 
Most of Collingwood's premiership players, aside from Nathan Brown who is out for the season with a knee injury, should be fit to play on Friday night, including Didak who is coming back from a pectoral injury.
 
"We sat down prior to the NAB Cup and mapped out a program for each individual player, and how many quarters they need to play. There will be some boys who have played the first three weeks which we feel is enough for them and there will be others who will need to get in," Neeld said.

"Alan has been in full training for three weeks so he's certain to be part of the mix. He will have to train in our main session on Tuesday, which will be his fourth main session, and if he does that then he'll certainly come under strong consideration."