He's been dubbed Collingwood's spiritual leader, but defender Brayden Maynard could be rubbed out for the best part of a month after putting his hands on an umpire during a fiery spat with Gold Coast's Ben Long.

Maynard was floored just before half-time of Saturday's spiteful six-point win over the Suns after copping a whack to the ribs from Long in an off-the-ball incident.

The hit - which sparked a wild melee - could result in a suspension to Long.

But the biggest talking point was what happened immediately after the half-time siren, when Maynard sprinted across to Long in a bid to continue their spat.

Umpire Nick Brown could see the trouble coming and was standing in front of Long.

As Maynard rushed in, he placed two hands in Brown's back to nudge the umpire out of the way so that he could get to Long.

Replays also showed star Suns midfielder Touk Miller, who was trailing Maynard, also made contact with the umpire.

Whether Maynard will argue he put his hands on Brown so as to not clatter into the umpire remains to be seen, but the AFL have made a point to crack down on any physical contact with umpires.

Accidental contact attracts fines, but intentional contact generally leads to lengthy suspensions.

GWS captain Toby Greene copped a six-match ban in 2021 when he bumped past an umpire who was trying to talk to him.

Although Maynard's incident wasn't as serious, there are already calls for him to be banned for four weeks.

North Melbourne legend David King labelled it as the "dumbest" football act of the year.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae said he didn't see the incident, but he was filthy with Long's hit that kicked things off.

"I wasn't happy with a guy getting hit off the ball. I'm not sure that's something we'd love every week," McRae said.

Star Magpies midfielder Nick Daicos labelled Maynard as the team's spiritual leader, and said the group was more than willing to fly the flag for their inspirational defender.

Maynard was influential in the thrilling victory, pulling off a series of clutch tackles and desperate acts to help seal the 15.14 (104) to 15.8 (98) win.

"This guy popped his shoulder out three weeks ago, and for most that's season ending. This guy's worked hard and got it right," McRae said.

"We love what he does and what he brings to the table.

"He inspires us in so many different ways. I'm certain we'll show a couple of those examples from late in the game (when he) saved goals or saved score involvements.

"He was really pivotal."

Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick didn't want to comment on Long's hit, but he praised the way his players coped with the intense physicality following the halftime drama.

"We played hard, we played tough, won contested ball, put our head over the ball," Hardwick said.

"I thought we coped with it really well."

Collingwood veteran Scott Pendlebury missed the match with a calf injury, and he's no certainty to return for Friday night's clash with North Melbourne.

"Pendles had a corkie in the game (a week earlier). He trained on Tuesday in Melbourne - fine," McRae explained.

"He gets on the plane Wednesday seemingly fine. And then we start training and he's got some awareness, and he gets a scan and there's a little bit there.

"How much, we're not sure. We'll have to assess what that looks like when we get back to Melbourne."