But Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse says it's far from doom and gloom at the Lexus Centre.
At the end of 2007 the club lost Nathan Buckley, James Clement and Paul Licuria to retirement, and this year injury struck down stalwart Anthony Rocca.
But Malthouse said the adversity had created positives in some areas when asked about the season in his post-match media conference.
"It's pretty hard straight after a match," he said. "But I think in general terms then club can be pretty proud.
"We knew that at the end of last season that we'd lost a lot of seniority, leadership, games played.
"We didn't plan for losing a couple of young fellows early – (Brad) Dick, we had big plans for him to play the majority of the season, certainly (Sean) Rusling, and we expected that (Simon) Prestigiacomo would be around the mark, and certainly Anthony (Rocca).
"And injuries happen, but when they do happen, and you have a ... not a second-string forward line, but a secondary forward line from the primary one that you picked probably in February and started to develop through the February/March campaign for April, and it's not there part-way through the year, I think it's a wonderful testament to the club's recruiting.
"We were still able to play, effectively, three young men who were 21 or less, as key forwards, and an 18-year-old and a couple of other young players who went in and out of that area, and still remain fairly competitive."
