As Scott Pendlebury prepares for his 200th match, Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has urged his men to show greater nous when attempting to stop an opposition scoring burst.

Having enjoyed a healthy 4-1 win-loss start to the season, the Magpies have slipped back into the pack after successive losses to Geelong and Richmond.

The Cats took charge with a burst of five unanswered goals in the opening 10 minutes of their round-six clash, and were never seriously challenged, while Buckley lamented a second quarter against the Tigers where the Pies were outscored 8.3 to 3.1.

While Buckley's complaint about the umpires' treatment of Travis Cloke dominated the post-match headlines on Sunday, more concerning is the manner in which rivals have established their dominance through profitable bursts.

Before a trip to the Gold Coast, Buckley revealed on Tuesday that handling opposition bursts had been a discussion point with his players.

"We have shown some consistent footy, but in basically every game we have had 20 minutes where the opposition has had momentum and we haven't been able to arrest them from taking full control on the scoreboard," he said.

"We have been able to get out of those because we have played three-and-a-bit quarters of really strong, solid footy, but you are not going to win as many games as you would like and perform as consistently as you like if you are not playing four quarters of footy."

Buckley said the Pies had to ensure they were not "hurt" on the scoreboard when they lost control.

"Invariably, to give momentum, you have had to have lost contests. And if you have lost contests, you haven't been able to stabilise it, potentially with tackling pressure. Then you can lose one-on-ones behind the ball. The other element of it is not being able to get the ball out of your back half or control the ball when you have an opportunity to have a crack at it [going forward]," he said.

"Those three or four areas are probably things we have discussed in regards to maintaining or controlling the opposition momentum when they have it.

"It doesn't matter who you play, where or when, whether you are top of the ladder or bottom of the ladder, your opposition will have momentum at some point in time and you will have momentum at some point of time. The best teams take advantage of it when they have got it and they don't get hurt on the scoreboard when they don't."

Whether the Pies are one of the league's best teams is a point of debate, and may not be known until they face Fremantle, Hawthorn and Port Adelaide straight out of the mid-season break.

Buckley said it was still too early to declare whether Steele Sidebottom (thumb), Jackson Ramsey (shin) and Alan Toovey (jarred knee) would play this weekend.

Ben Reid was rested from the VFL last weekend but football chief Neil Balme remained "pretty confident" his recovery from a quad strain was progressing well.

However, Brent Macaffer – who had been on the mend from a knee reconstruction – faces more time on the sidelines after having more surgery because of an issue with the hamstring graft used on the reconstruction.

One man almost certain of playing on Saturday evening is Pendlebury, the Magpies' skipper and a three-time Copeland Trophy winner.

Taken with the fifth overall pick of the 2005 national draft, Pendlebury will eventually finish his career as one of the club's greatest.

While "not one for rankings", Buckley said Pendlebury was "right up there" in terms of the best players he had seen during his 20 years at the club.

"Pendles has been a model of consistency and excellence," Buckley said. "I think the biggest accolade you can give anyone is they have got the best out of themselves and he has done that consistently and he still has more to go."