"We had a particularly tough last ten days in terms of what we have had to do as a football club," Clarkson said. "Get out of the state, our whole club, in the space of two days, to play a game in Sydney against an opponent that is just sitting waiting for you on their home track in GWS.

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"Then we have to butter up five days later against a really, really good side. You know, it is tough.

"It is going to be tough for other clubs. And we just have to go with the swings and roundabouts."

"There will be some point in time in this season where we get a more lucky run than we have had in the last seven or eight days."

Clarkson lamented his side's slow start and lack of potency.

"We over-possessed the ball in our back half in particular. We couldn't take to ground with the ball. When we turned it over we gave Collingwood the corridor. They scored I think four goals in turnover in the first quarter," he said.

"Their domination to the game to half-time was significant. But we hung in there. We played better in the second half but we couldn't - even though we got the ball forward and got the ball inside 50 and we evened up the game a little bit in terms of general play - we couldn't get the scoreboard pressure that we really needed to make inroads in the third quarter."

Clarkson said there would be "empathy in the whole football world" for Jonathon Patton, who injured his hamstring on his return from a foot injury. He has a history of hamstring problems on top of three ACL reconstructions.

"It is a tough game and he has another challenge to overcome now. It is disappointing for him," Clarkson said.

In good news for the Hawks Jarman Impey made a successful return from an ACL reconstruction in a scratch match against GWS on Saturday. Impey was one of the Hawks' best in 2019 before rupturing his ACL last July.

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Pies coach Nathan Buckley was delighted with how his team committed to the contest after lacking in that area when losing to Essendon.

He said debutant Will Kelly had a likely dislocated elbow, while Jamie Elliott (calf) was takern from the field as a precaution and Matt Scharenberg (ribs) looked OK after the game.

"We got to work early and I think our work inside was the biggest improvement for us," Buckley said.

"Our capacity to put pressure on them and to defend the ground for the first three quarters ... We were able to get forward often enough ... we controlled the game for the most part."