Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley was in a forthright mood following the AFL grand final, claiming his side lost their nerve in a heartbreaking five-point defeat to West Coast.

The Magpies burst out of the blocks at the MCG, kicking the first five goals of the match to open up a 29-point lead.

But they wilted from there as the Eagles, who finished full of run, worked their way back into the contest to set up a thrilling final quarter.

Collingwood kicked two goals in the first two minutes of the last term but could not put the Eagles away and it proved costly, with Dom Sheed’s goal from the boundary in the dying stages helping West Coast to a famous victory.

Buckley was proud of his players but admitted they went into their shell and failed to take the game on when it counted.

“We stopped shifting the ball, we lost our dare, we lost our aggression to shift the ball,” he said.

“[We] looked pretty good early [but] when that stopped, we started kicking long down the line.

“Players looked like they were happy to run forward and didn’t want the pill as much, didn’t want to shift the angles.

“We weren’t quite as clean inside as we have been. To be specific, I think we got two goals up in the last quarter and we just had two or three opportunities to get the ball out of the next centre bounce.

“We just weren’t clean and it went back the other way and West Coast got a goal pretty quick.

“Those little moments will haunt the players, will haunt us.”

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire could not hide his emotions after the match. Photo: Getty

Buckley went on to acknowledge that West Coast’s players dominated in the air, something he cited as a key factor in the match.

Eagles defenders Tom Barrass (10 marks), Jeremy McGovern (nine), Liam Duggan (seven) and Shannon Hurn (six) repelled a series of Magpie attacks when Collingwood were in control, while forwards Josh Kennedy (11) and Jack Darling (seven) also marked well.

“The aerial battle’s really hurt us,” Buckley conceded, before again mentioning “we did lose our dare”.

“I’m pretty numb, and the boys are pretty numb,” he added.

“I’m enormously proud of our club, I’m proud of the players. There’s a lot of boys in there that are hurting, as you’d expect.”

How Collingwood’s runner cost the Magpies a goal

A flashpoint in Saturday’s clash came in the third quarter when Taylor Adams tried to find Jaidyn Stephenson by foot.

Stephenson was accidentally blocked by Collingwood runner Alex Woodward, though, and could not get to the ball, as West Coast’s Elliot Yeo stole in and took a mark.

He then went back and goaled to give West Coast the lead for the first time in the match.

With the final margin being just five points, Woodward was in tears – both on the bench after the siren and then again in Collingwood’s rooms.

YEO GOES BANG!

Collingwood runner Alex Woodward got in Jaidyn Stephenson's way.#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/qCAL67QDpd

— AFL (@AFL) September 29, 2018

Woodward played two games for Hawthorn in 2014 and has suffered four knee reconstructions in a football career that has largely been restricted to VFL football.

He played for Collingwood’s VFL team in 2018 and finished equal third in the competition best and fairest, despite playing just eight matches, sparking speculation that he could be recruited onto the Magpies’ AFL list.

“Woody’s shattered, he’s blaming himself,” Buckley said.

“It’s one of those marginal situations that happens in a game and that’s one of them. The reason I grabbed him is he can’t be blaming himself.

“Things happen in life, things happen in football.

“He was trying to get out of the way, and it didn’t work.”

Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury added that the Magpies will use the heartbreak as motivation ahead of the 2019 season.

“It will burn guys, naturally,” he said, as reported by the AFL website.

“Anytime you get that close and it falls away from you in the last few minutes of the game, it will burn.

“We’ll use that to drive us over summer.”