West Coast coach Andrew McQualter has defended backman Tylar Young, who was at the centre of an incident which left Collingwood forward Jamie Elliott sustaining a suspected serious knee injury and sparked a late melee.

The young Eagles nearly completed the impossible of upsetting the Magpies, who were celebrating former captain Scott Pendlebury’s record-breaking 433rd match in front of 90,028 at the MCG.

And while Collingwood walked away with the 13.14 (92) to 12.10 (82) victory, it was soured by an incident in the dying moments, with Elliott appearing to have sustained a serious left knee injury as he leapt for a mark against Young.

Collingwood players remonstrated strongly with a melee ensuing despite the result being beyond doubt.

Pendlebury and Nick Daicos were seen trying to get to Young, who was protected by teammates, before a scuffle broke out with Magpies antagonist Brayden Maynard at the centre of it all.

And while the home side grabbed the four points, they will be left to count the costs with Elliott as well as captain Darcy Moore (hamstring) and West Australian product Will Hayes (shoulder) all not seeing out the game.

McQualter said Young did nothing wrong in the contest and was unsure why the Magpies players were so upset.

“Firstly, I really hope Jamie’s OK. It looked like a nasty incident, and you don’t want anyone you see getting injured, but I looked at it again, and I’m certain that Tylar Young did nothing wrong in that marking contest,” he said.

“He was competing for the ball, he was in that marking contest, and unfortunately, accidents happen in our game.

“I don’t know what they were remonstrating for. It’s disappointing that Jamie got injured, but there’s nothing more to it.”

Magpies coach Craig McRae said Elliott knew in mid-air that he was in trouble but would not comment on the incident itself.

“It’s too early to make any diagnosis other than we’re hopeful, we hope for the best. We don’t know until scanned,” he said.

“He’s in reasonably good spirits. We can’t rule anything out. Clearly, he’s injured; we just don’t know to what extent yet.

“You’re vulnerable when you’re in the air. I watched the replay. I was more concerned about Jamie, watching his body movement, than the actual incident.

“Speaking to Jamie afterwards, he goes, Why did I go for that mark?’ ... he just felt really vulnerable. This is the incredible athlete, he’s saying that he felt in the air, he goes ‘Oh no’. This is how he can see the game at such a slow speed at times. I don’t know, it’s hard to comment on the incident.”

While West Coast — who are going by Waalitj Marawar as part of the Sir Doug Nicholls Round — didn’t walk away with the win, several of their youngsters got an invaluable experience of playing on the big stage, according to McQualter.

“I’m proud of the way we played, for sure. We were really competitive on a big stage, we gave ourselves the chance to win, it was disappointing we didn’t win because that’s what our aim was,” he said.

“I thought we saw growth in our players and our team today. I said to them after the game, last week we had a pressure game off the charts to win a game of football, so for me, we’re not going to have that record-level type pressure every week.

“To be able to play well, be competitive without it being exactly where we needed it to be, that’s a little sign of growth for us. I was pleased with the performance, disappointed with the outcome.”