A disappointed Collingwood senior coach Mick Malthouse believes his players simply ran out of puff in going down to St Kilda by 34 points in Saturday night's First Semi-Final at the MCG.

Malthouse said the Pies' testing schedule which included three road trips in the past five weeks was no excuse for Saturday night's letdown, but a reasonable explanation for it.

"It's been a long year for a lot of our players and I just sensed at quarter time that almost every element of our indicators were down," Malthouse said.

"We just didn't seem to have that energy … and I thought a few of our senior players just never got near their best."

"If you're off marginally, the scoreline is what it was."

Malthouse said skipper Scott Burns made the decision to withdraw from Saturday night's line-up after he was initially selected to play.

Burns pulled up sore after training on Friday morning from the corked calf which had kept him sidelined for lead-up matches against Fremantle and Adelaide.

"It was his call in the end," Malthouse said.

"The player has got to feel comfortable and he wasn't - you can't play a player who doesn't feel he can get through the game."

Malthouse said Simon Prestigiacomo who was also a late withdrawal with a shoulder injury sustained against the Crows last week, was 'always going to struggle' to play and confirmed what the football community already knew, that key forward Travis Cloke had been suffering from a virus.

Cloke had no influence at all against the Saints in picking up just six touches for the night.

Asked whether Presti and fellow veteran Shane Wakelin would be required next year, Malthouse said: "I think one should go on, just to give us some support."

"We'll talk to both players and see how they feel about it."

"Both might say they want to go on and both might say we want to give it away."

Reflecting on the lessons from the season, Malthouse said John Anthony's success up forward may prompt him to try Ben Reid or Sean Rusling in defence next year.

"The year has opened up possibilities for us … and the negatives are few and far between," he said.

"There is a lot of upside to our side and there's a lot of upside to the fact that they played some big games and the ones we lost we were able to learn a lot from."