Concerned about the lack of early defensive pressure, which allowed St Kilda to kick five of the first seven goals of the match, Buckley made it clear in his quarter time address to his players that they had to lift their intensity. The Saints led the tackle, clearance and contested possession counts at quarter time before Collingwood gained control through the middle of the ground.

"The leaders on field were able to control that," Buckley said. "Early stages, after their third goal we just took the gas out of it a little bit and then slowly and steadily turned the contested possession and clearances around. Got a better contest, started defending and then got the game on our terms which was good for the rest of the day."

Once the Magpies had control of the ball, they then attacked with frightening regularity. Collingwood's dominance was told in their final inside 50 count, which they won 77 to 42. An astounding 66 of those entries came after quarter time.

Buckley was particularly happy with the spread of contributors across the ground, reflected in the 13 separate goalkickers the Pies had during the night. Buckley said the Pies wanted to add attacking firepower outside their traditional forwards Travis Cloke and Jamie Elliott.

"In the first fifteen minutes we had very few that were playing the way we want to play," he said. "But by the end of the game very few would have said that they didn't contribute."

If it was an equal performance, then some are more equal than others. Midfielder Dane Swan was clearly the best on ground for Collingwood, collecting 39 disposals and 15 inside 50s. It was a dominant performance from the 31-year-old that showed his doubters he still has plenty left in the tank.

Buckley said it was as "clean" as he'd seen Swan play for some time: "He's a talented player, he's pretty hard on himself and he does draw a lot of focus. But that was a very solid game by him, I'm not surprised to see him do it though."

Collingwood will now face a big test on ANZAC Day to see if they can maintain their defensive game against an Essendon side which has been manic in its attack on the footy against Hawthorn and Sydney.

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson said he was frustrated at the drop in the pressure, after his players showed lots of intensity in last week's 28-point win against the Gold Coast. Despite a strong defensive start to the game, the Saints ended up losing the tackle count to Collingwood 74-70.

"We fumbled terribly, our pressure they broke our pressure, given that we're reasonably aggressive with the way we defend if they break that first line then we're going to be vulnerable out the back," he said.

The unveiling of number one draft pick Paddy McCartin was a bit more low key than the usual fanfare attributed to such moments. The Saints youngster was told less than an hour before the game that he would be a late inclusion for skipper Nick Riewoldt, who hurt his calf in the warm-up.

McCartin's call-up came as such a surprise that his mother had to rush to the ground from Geelong. His dad Matt left his car at the Arts Centre to make it in time for the pre-game jumper presentation.

Unsurprisingly with such a last-minute debut, McCartin looked a bit shell-shocked early. The big forward struggled to get into the game, ending with nine disposals and no goals.

Richardson said it was an awkward way to prepare for a game: "In an ideal world he wouldn't have played Rooey [Riewoldt] would have played, he's probably not quite ready but I thought his last quarter was reasonably positive."