Collingwood will be left counting the significant cost of its 10-point preliminary final win over Geelong, with Levi Greenwood suffering a suspected torn ACL and superstar forward Jordan De Goey sidelined yet again with a hamstring complaint.

Greenwood suffered the injury in the second term, but it is unclear how the incident happened.

"Hamstring [for De Goey], don't know if it's a grade or if it's just tightness, but he couldn't finish the game, and Levi is a suspected ACL. It's terrible for him," coach Nathan Buckley said.

"They're both remarkably stoic characters, and Levi in particular in the circumstance he's in. And Levi is a much-loved member of the group. There's not many we don't like, but Levi's right up there in regards to heart and soul. His teammates just love him.

"We're really flat for him, we expect the diagnosis to be confirmed. We can't be positive [it's a torn ACL], there's always hope. He was around his teammates on the bench still really positive, engaging and contributing in any manner he could. Physically he was done, but still, his demeanour and his energy was still really positive."

The talented De Goey's soft tissue troubles continue, having been picked for the match against Geelong after missing Collingwood's final four games of the home and away season with a hamstring injury.

Buckley could not confirm whether De Goey had suffered a recurrence of the same injury.

"I can't be sure of it. I suspect it is, because it was tightness initially, but we don't have any more information for you," he said.

The coach said being two rotations down from the third quarter did not have too much of an effect on the match.

"I thought we were still able to do most things, Geelong were one down as well (Mitch Duncan, knee), so that was probably marginal.

"They definitely wanted to speed the game up when they needed to score after probably halfway through the third quarter and into the last, but we were able to handle for the most part whatever they threw at us.

"It was a really strong, consolidated effort across the four quarters."

Geelong threw a bit of a curveball at All Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy, withdrawing Rhys Stanley then continually rotating players against him.

It was to no avail, as Grundy finished with 47 hitouts, 22 disposals and seven clearances.

"In the end, the tactics in the last quarter against Brodie were really interesting. (Mark) Blicavs, (Esava) Ratugolea and (Tom) Hawkins rucking against him at various times, (Harry) Taylor even had a stoppage there at one point," Buckley said.

"And there was a lot of rotation between their ruck and their key forwards as the game wore on, it was a pretty clear strategy there to try and wear Brodie down. That's probably a little of the situation you find yourself in when you go in with the one recognised ruck and the second ruck (Jordan Roughead) is not a genuine ruckman.

"Our hands were tied a little bit with our injuries by that point, so there wasn't a lot we could to to answer that, other than 'Brodes' to battle his way through it, which he did remarkably well."

The Pies now go into a week off ahead of a preliminary final with a clear roadmap.

"We will attempt to replicate our last fortnight into the preliminary final," Buckley said.

"This week will be about recovery and it'll be pretty light and a bit of a laugh, then we'll get some work into it towards the end of the week. Then we'll really narrow our focus when we know who our opponent is."