Collingwood has not missed the finals since 2005, a five-win season Magpie fans can reflect at least got them Scott Pendlebury in the draft. Now out of the eight after a fifth loss in six games, this is no time to be pondering silver linings.

A desperately young team brought the requisite intensity for most of Sunday evening against Adelaide at the MCG, and midway through the last quarter led a game that had seemed stacked against it from the early exchanges.

Conversations about whether making the eight would have a hollow ring were put on hold as the Pies played for their season.

But having been hurt by the sort of mistakes kids tend to make  – often in unfortunate places – their resistance ultimately waned in the face of five consecutive Adelaide goals – two of them to Taylor Walker – that vaulted the Crows to eighth. It was their first MCG win for almost two years, and they look the better-placed of the two to influence the playoffs should either make it.

The certainty that Ben Reid’s first appearance of 2014 would give Collingwood greater potency in attack carried an uncomfortable rider –_ that the Pies wear a vulnerable green tinge down back. Five first-quarter turnovers in the defensive-50 made for a start with a nasty smell about it.

Reid didn’t enjoy a red carpet return, his first two attacks on the ball hitting shin and ankle and a long-awaited clean mark in a contest let down by a rusty finish. Adelaide has hardy souls down back, Reid’s opponent Andy Otten among them; the Magpies couldn’t buy an easy goal all night.

The visitors missed the target five times between Jesse White’s opener and Pendlebury’s goal from a holding free after 12 minutes, but found their range with four in six minutes as Collingwood’s young defenders got the jitters. Walker started deep and pushed high, turning provider for Eddie Betts and Brodie Martin as the Crows’ threat was exemplified by 15 first quarter inside-50s to eight.

Clinton Young’s second-quarter report looked less of a concern than the accompanying 50-metre penalty that gifted Brodie Smith Adelaide’s sixth goal, but as if sensing the gravity of the situation, Collingwood picked itself up and fought hard for its season’s survival.

The Crows had been underpinned by a running brigade far more familiar in Hindley St than Bourke St, as Richard Douglas, Brad Crouch, Rory Laird, Matt Jaensch and the Brodies, Smith and Martin, made themselves well known to their opponents. As individuals they were quietened for snatches of the game, but collectively they won out.

Midway through the third, with Adelaide threatening to split the game open, Patrick Dangerfield thwarted another Pies attack with a handball of poise and vision. But the groans from beyond the fence were assuaged by a matching act of brilliance from Paul Seedsman, who ran down Matthew Wright, played on and set up Travis Cloke. Dayne Beams found Jarrod Witts three minutes later and there was genuine life in the contest.

James Podsiadly, who spent part of his 100th game in the rooms having an elbow injury seen to, should have responded immediately after marking 15 metres out, but his round-the-body set shot from an angle that demanded only a conventional approach missed everything.

Adelaide steadied through the impressive Smith but the Crows had a nap after infringing on Taylor Adams, allowing the former Giant to hand off to Beams who cut the margin to a goal. A run of five consecutive Adelaide behinds before three-quarter time left question marks hanging where there might have been a full stop.

Cloke won a lucky holding free against Daniel Talia but the goal that put the Pies in front was emphatic, Pendlebury rising third man up and palming to Beams with a basketballer’s dexterity. Cloke, looking bigger with each Collingwood forward thrust, goaled again and the Crows’ goal drought neared a quarter.

But Podsiadly got out the back, Douglas showcased his attacking threat with another, David Mackay chipped in and Walker got a brace that sealed a result Collingwood will rue, but one it must have seen coming.