Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge concedes his club faces a challenge to pick up the pieces after a "devastating night" in which the Dogs lost Mitch Wallis and Jack Redpath to long-term injuries, as well as falling from the top four.
The Dogs lost to St Kilda by 15 points at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, but final-quarter injuries to Wallis (broken fibula and tibia) and Redpath (ACL) made things considerably worse.
Gun defender Dale Morris is also in doubt to face Geelong in an eight-point game next Friday night at Simonds Stadium after his night was ended early with a hamstring injury.
A sombre Beveridge said his club was reeling.
"It is a devastating night for many reasons," Beveridge said.
"There's a lot of emotion in that room down there.
"It's a bit like earlier in the year when Bob [Murphy] went down with his, and even when Prudes [Josh Prudden] did his at VFL level, the result and the game almost pale into insignificance.
"I think at all football clubs the players are really tight, and ours is no different."
Beveridge said he would give his players time to grieve.
"It's going to be a challenge. We've just had a discussion around that and what the right steps are," he said.
"We've got a lot of time to process it.
"By the end of Tuesday when we walk out of the building and the club we've got to be ready to move on and meet the challenges ahead. We put too much work in to let it fall away by the wayside.
"It's all our people's challenge to pick them up, and look on the bright side and be supreme optimists and know and believe that there's still a bit left in our year and we can still be there at the end, and be a challenger. As long as we believe that, we'll be OK."
Redpath – who has twice previously ruptured his other ACL – spent time off the ground in the third quarter with a knee injury. But Beveridge said he was comfortable with club medicos' decision to bring the key forward back on the ground. "All the clinical tests showed that his knee was stable … he just had a jarring incident. The one where's he done his ACL was one of those sort of innocuous change of direction type movements."
The Dogs have fallen from third to sixth after the defeat, and could drop to seventh if Greater Western Sydney beat Port Adelaide on Sunday. With Morris no certainty to face the Cats, fellow defender Joel Hamling has been withdrawn from the Footscray VFL team that plays on Sunday, while the game time of others will be managed to deal with the heavy toll.
The Saints' slender finals hopes remain alive after they won their seventh game in nine starts. St Kilda now face North Melbourne next Saturday night in a crucial clash, given the Roos are two games and percentage clear of the Saints in eighth spot.
St Kilda coach Alan Richardson lauded his side after a week in which their top eight chances had been discussed widely in the media.
"It was good for all of us to sit back and watch how the guys cope with that," Richardson said.
"We needed to look after our end of the deal, and that was to try and win a game of footy."
Richardson said Sam Fisher (hamstring) would likely return to face the Roos in what is North veteran Brent Harvey's record-breaking 427th AFL game.
Paddy McCartin (concussion) should also return next weekend, but Richardson said the young forward would probably come back through the VFL.
