Collingwood coach Craig McRae has slammed his team's 'disappointing performance' after their big loss to Hawthorn on Thursday night.
In their biggest loss of the year, the Magpies were defeated by 64 points to the Hawks at the MCG, losing (6.10) 46 to (17.8) 110 in Steele Sidebottom's 350th game.
Their score of 46 points was the lowest score under Craig McRae's tenure at Collingwood, with their previous lowest score of 50 points coming against Sydney in Round 22, 2022.
An animated McRae stated he was concerned with the Pies' loss, which leaves them vulnerable to losing a top-four spot and the double chance.
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"That's a disappointing performance; you can't sugarcoat that," McRae said
"We're hurting; that one really hurt. Just a lack of system, and then lack of fight, lack of effort, sometimes at the same time, which leaves us really vulnerable.
"We just had some really poor efforts at times, errors on the goal line, it's just really poor. This is the reality of what we've got right now."
Returning Pie defender Jeremy Howe was knocked out in the second minute of the game in a sickening collision with Hawk Jai Newcombe and was stretchered off the ground.
McRae said the incident upset the team, but didn't want to make excuses for losing one of their key defenders.
"I just don't want to make excuses; it rocked us, it did, it was right in front of us. rocked us and rocked some of our staff, but I don't want excuses," he said.
"We're confident we can turn things around."
Howe will be in concussion protocols and will miss the Pies game against ladder leaders Adelaide next week.
The Pies have lost four of their last five games, all four losses coming against top eight sides, with losses against Gold Coast, Fremantle, Brisbane and now Hawthorn, with their only win against 17th placed Richmond.