St Kilda are hopeful defender Sam Gilbert has avoided a serious knee injury in the club’s AFL loss to Collingwood.

The Saints went down 15.13 (103) to 11.11 (77) in a hard-fought battle at Etihad Stadium on Friday night to leave them with a 1-5 record for the season.

They lost Lenny Hayes (calf) in the pre-game warm-up, Gilbert in the third term, while Justin Koschitzke faces a likely suspension for an elbow to the head of Collingwood’s Jamie Elliott.

Coach Scott Watters said the Saints were cautiously hopeful Gilbert had done nothing more serious than hyperextend his left knee.

“We don’t think so at this stage,” the coach said post-match.

“But we’ve had some examples, even in recent weeks, where people are saying it’s not an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and, all of a sudden, it is. You’ve just got to wait for the scan.”

He said Hayes’ injury was minor and there had been a possibility he could still play but the club didn’t want to risk a one or two-game absence becoming four or five.

After pushing Sydney hard last round, it was the second straight game in which the Saints have challenged a quality opponent but Watters wasn’t satisfied.

“It’s really hard to accept commendable efforts, to be honest,” he said.

He said there were some good signs from young players, but three of them – Jack Newnes, Brodie Murdoch and Josh Saunders – failed to gain a possession in the last quarter.

“We want to be a club that strives to beat the good sides and you need to go the full distance,” he said.

Neither Watters nor Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley would comment on the Koschitzke incident, although injured Magpie Dayne Beams made his feelings clear.

“Fairly weak that by Justin Koschitzke,” Beams tweeted.

While Collingwood didn’t get the attacking side of their game flowing until the second half, Buckley was pleased with their improved defensive work.

“It’s a balance in the game that we need to get right to be as good as we want to be and we’re still learning how we want to go about that,” Buckley said.