Collingwood coach Wayne Siekman concedes his team has only a slim chance of qualifying for this year's AFL Women's grand final after suffering their second consecutive loss on Saturday night against Melbourne at Princes Park.
The result left Collingwood winless after two rounds and they could slip to the bottom of the ladder if Fremantle defeat the Brisbane Lions on Sunday.
With no finals series, the top two teams at the end of the seven-week regular season feature in the premiership decider which means the Magpies, with a meagre percentage of 40.0, will have to win their last five matches to be any hope of featuring in the premiership decider.
"There's a small window now, no more errors," Siekman said. "If we lose, that's it."
Collingwood gave up a 19-point half-time lead and were held scoreless in the second half as Melbourne piled on six consecutive goals to run out 7.2 (44) to 4.1 (25) winners.
The match was marred by an ugly incident which saw Collingwood's Sophie Casey reported for knocking out Melbourne's Meg Downie with some head-high contact, requiring her to be stretchered off the ground.
Fortunately, Downie was cleared of serious damage but she suffered a heavy concussion and was sent to hospital as a precaution.
"Fingers crossed she just continues to improve, (it was a) significant head knock," Melbourne coach Mick Stinear said.
"She's OK, still a little bit stiff and sore and wobbly but she'll be OK."
Siekman said Casey was 'quite upset' at being responsible for Downie's injury.
"Our player was pretty disappointed and it's not normally her," he said.
Stinear said his players understood their season was on the line at halftime.
"Without talking about it everyone knew the importance of it. The positive thing is now they know what it feels like to be a winning team," he said.
"The work rate wasn't there (in the first half) ... and then a number of players stepped up and then everyone started to get on the same page."
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