As well as the huge loss of Gary Ablett with a dislocated shoulder, the Suns went into the final break defending a six-point lead without Charlie Dixon who suffered a corked calf, and just minutes into the fourth term lost Trent McKenzie with a hamstring injury and Sean Lemmens to a suspected concussion.
Despite this advantage in numbers, Collingwood did not lay siege on the Suns goal as expected, even struggling to get the ball into their forward 50, and ended up losing by five points.
“They still had the ability to get into and out of the contest in the second half in particular and we couldn’t match it,” Buckley said.
Vote for your top three players from Collingwood's five-point loss in the Magpie Army Player of the Year Award.
“(The Suns injuries) will be part of the story of the night. We had fit men on the bench but you only play with 18 on the field.
“They were able to keep going and their contested ball was good.
“We couldn’t get the ball forward. We lost territory in the last quarter. It was in the Gold Coast forward-50 for 60 per cent of that last quarter.
“The message at three-quarter time was to get it forward and be prepared to have those 50-50 contests closer to their goal.
“Their intensity was pretty good throughout the night and they maintained it through that last quarter.
“We weren’t clean enough or efficient enough to get out of their contested scrimmages and give our forwards a clean enough chance, they defended pretty well when we did get it in there and we weren’t able to score heavily enough.”
That Gold Coast were ahead at three-quarter time was due to Collingwood’s errant goal-kicking, especially a run of ten straight points from early in the second quarter to the last break.
“We clearly controlled the game in the first half but didn’t maximize our opportunities,” Buckley said.
“It’s part of the game, it’s poor footy if we don’t take advantage of those opportunities.
“Whether it’s a little bit more composure to find a better option going forward, whether it’s taking grabs or finishing off.
“That’s pretty well where we’re at now. Gold Coast are a top eight side and we’re level on points.
“We came to their venue expecting to win, prepared to win and we executed a lot of what we planned but missed out in crucial areas - ball use being one of them.”
Collingwood’s plight was summed up by Clinton Young dropping an easy mark in front of the sticks in the closing minutes of the game – when a goal would have given the Magpies the lead.
However Young’s coach refused to lay the blame on him.
“It’s an isolated incident (but) it’s a snapshot of what we missed tonight,” Buckley said.
“He had some good moments, he had some poor moments. He happened to have a bad one in the last couple of minutes that might have got us over the line.”
