Despite a day with promising bursts of momentum, Senior Coach Brad Scott ultimately cited Collingwood's experience and ability to capitalise on turnovers as the main reasons for his side’s defeat.

Still, the Dons’ ability to bounce back and stay in the hunt at different stages impressed Scott – particularly given the Pies’ start to season 2025 as the ladder leaders.

Although the late fallaway proved decisive, Scott’s confident the group can rebound well.

Scott on… lapses

We were probably under pressure from the start of the game.

It was obviously going to be one of those days where territory was going to be important.

A costly error in the back half can hurt you against all teams but in particular, it hurts you against Collingwood.

They had 12 shots at goal from their attacking mid zone, that by definition means we had the ball and they got it back.

I thought that was a big difference in the game, that they were able to generate their shots from front half turnovers.

Scott on… positive signs, Durham’s matchup with Daicos

There’s a lot of really good signs for us going forward.

We conceded a lot of inside 50’s but Zach Reid looked like one of the better players on the ground, Andy McGrath’s job on Bobby Hill, a lot of really good signs.

I’d agree with the conclusion there that a bit of their class and elder statesmen were influential.

To play against a very, very experienced side, be 27 points down, challenged, get back in front, show some character – (we) fell away at the end but we’ll learn our lessons that they were just a bit more polished, had a little bit more class and certainly had more experience.

Clearly (if) Daicos isn’t the best player in the comp, he’s in the conversation with a couple of others, but we rate (Sam) Durham pretty highly too.

I thought he showed – certainly in patches - but for most of the game, his capability.

Scott on… overuse, ball movement ahead of centre

We got back in the game through some pretty simple footy but then we started overusing the ball.

Opportunities to go forward and score, we tried an extra handball, invited pressure and turned the ball over.

When we went forward in the third quarter, we looked pretty dangerous but we couldn’t get it there enough.

Probably in the last 18 months, we’ve been a pretty high inside 50 team, we’ve adjusted that a little bit to try and get better quality, but we just didn’t get the quantum today.

Our midfield’s been a real strength of ours but we probably lowered our colours today.

Scott on… losing communications with the bench in the third quarter

It was pretty old-school, we just had to get the mobile phones out.

It was pretty frustrating, that’s as helpless as I’ve felt in a quarter of footy.

We couldn’t work out what was going on but from what I hear, we weren’t the only ones.

Scott on… Jones and Shiel coming off

Shiel just cramped late in the game, we’d made our sub so we had enough fresh players, that was purely just a fatigue thing.

We’d actually made the sub with Jones before I’d heard that he rolled his ankle, but he’s pretty upbeat – think it’s pretty minor if anything.