Hunter, who is currently serving a four-week club-imposed suspension for arriving late to a training session, reportedly had his telephone betting account used by an unnamed VFL player to bet on the Bulldogs' NAB Challenge match against Melbourne last weekend.

Beveridge anticipated the investigation into Hunter would be wrapped up "early next week" and said the promising father-son pick was starting to understand the importance of being a solid citizen within the club following a couple of weeks he would rather forget.

"Lachie's probably been through a period where he's learnt a bit about what his future looks like with doing the right thing by himself and his teammates," Beveridge said following the Bulldogs' impressive 61-point NAB Challenge win over Collingwood on Saturday night at Etihad Stadium.

"So we need to help him through it and hopefully in the early part of this season we can get him back into the side and he can start to play good footy because he's a very important player for us."

Collingwood are dealing with a betting controversy of their own after it was revealed new recruit Jack Crisp was also the subject of an AFL investigation for allegedly making a bet while playing for Brisbane last year.

Like Beveridge has done with Hunter, Magpies coach Nathan Buckley threw his full support behind the ex-Lion. "He has been really open and transparent in his misunderstanding of his obligations," Buckley said.

"Jack's a little bit embarrassed about it, as you would expect, but he has been very open and honest. You take him as you see him because he's an open book, Jack, and he made a blue and he's owned up to it and he's prepared to pay his penance – whatever that is."

The Crisp drama serves as another unwanted headache for Buckley, who watched his team get walloped in its final NAB Challenge match before its season-opener against the Brisbane Lions on April 4.

The lacklustre Magpies were made to look second-rate by the far hungrier Bulldogs, who ran Buckley's men off their feet and pressured them into submission.

While Collingwood have now lost two practice matches in a row, Buckley insisted he wasn't going to start panicking.

"Last year we got done round one by 70 points [by Fremantle] and had two losses into round two and then went up to Sydney and beat Sydney and then continued with a pretty strong run through the first half of the year, so we're not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater after the last two weeks," he said.

"We would have liked to have performed better [against the Bulldogs], that's not a reflection of the way that we've trained and prepared."

The Bulldogs midfield has taken a hit this year with Ryan Griffen defecting to GWS and Tom Liberatore out for 12 months due to a knee injury, but Beveridge was rapt with the way the likes of Marcus Bontempelli, Jackson Macrae, Luke Dahlhaus and Lin Jong combined to seamlessly cover those losses against Collingwood.

"It's really encouraging, we're going to need to share the load and they did tonight," Beveridge said.

Bontempelli was the standout with 29 disposals, nine tackles and three goals and Beveridge likened him to established superstars Nat Fyfe and Brendon Goddard.

"He's going to be a difficult challenge for most teams when they come up against us," Beveridge said of the former No. 4 draft pick. "His physique tells us he can play anywhere and that's pretty handy for me as a coach ... he's obviously going to help enormously with our versatility."