CTV > Mick Malthouse's post match press conference
CTV > Nick Maxwell's post match interview

THE COLLINGWOOD rooms were a sombre place to be on Saturday evening.

Normally buzzing with excitement and packed full of boisterous supporters and their kids, the MCG changerooms allocated to the club were deserted.

The players, usually all too happy to mingle with the fans and media alike, had almost all left the ground by 5.10pm – some still sporting their playing strips and shorts.

The 48-point loss to Essendon, the second consecutive defeat for the club, had certainly rocked the players to the core.

"We just played very poorly," a shattered Harry O'Brien told collingwoodfc.com.au.

"That's the second week in a row we've played poor, and I think they just outran us and we were really poor in picking up our men.

"We're very disappointing. It's a very disappointed mood in there.

"We're a bit quiet just thinking about what was on the line.

"We're going to have to sit down and have a look when we do our match review, so we'll look at it then."

O'Brien, 21, said the Magpies once again failed to apply the type of form they showed in the second quarter, when they whittled a 33-point deficit down to just two, across a whole game of football.

"That seems to happen a bit when we play. That's what we've done this year, is showed glimpses and played in patches, and that's not good enough," he said,

"Not a lot has been said yet, but it's certainly one of the most disappointing losses for the year, keeping in mind what's on the line."

O'Brien, still reeling from the result, said it was hard to visualise just where the Magpies sit in regards to the top eight, which they now have a chance of falling out of before the season's end.

"It's still early, and we're going to have to reassess where we're at," he said.

"We're not even thinking about that at the moment. We've just got to win games of footy."

As one of the most self-critical players on the Magpies' list, O'Brien said his performance on spearhead Scott Lucas – who he kept to a paltry two possessions – was not a consolation to Saturday's result.

"I didn't get enough of the ball and I didn't use it well enough, and I think all of my teammates have got an area today where they should have done something better," he said.

"You've also got to keep in mind that he's coming back from an injury and is still very hampered by that, and I'm lucky to get him at this stage because he's not as fit as what he was before he did his knee.