When Lachie Hunter was told he had to start the season playing for the Western Bulldogs' VFL side and prove to his teammates that he deserved to be pushed back into the senior team, he wasn't sure how long it would take him to do that but didn't think it would take too long. "With where we've been in the last couple of years," he said, "it hasn't felt too hard to get a game."

Hunter felt like he started to work hard straight away, and like he was playing as consistently as he ever had before. But the games weren't coming, and the longer he had to wait the more he sensed his team's improvement and that he was part of a much more competitive squad.

Hunter got his chance six weeks ago, and knew he wanted to hold onto it. He knew what Sunday meant to both his team and the Collingwood side that hadn't won since the middle of June and played the best match he ever has: busy, smart and involved from start to finish.

"I probably thought I'd come back a bit easier than I did but I realised pretty quickly that I'd have to do a lot of work just to get a game let alone stay in the team," said Hunter, who had 32 possessions and took 10 marks, working hard to cover a lot of ground and move the ball both into and out of dangerous spots. "Everyone here wants to play in games like this because we all know how competitive it is to get a game now and that if you do the wrong thing, you'll be out. We had to fight pretty hard for the win, and I think that's because we are all on edge."

The Bulldogs couldn't get away with putting up one fight, either. This match was probably decided in two areas: ball use, particularly coming out of defence, and the two forward line set-ups, but each time the Bulldogs seemed to push away the Magpies lunged back at them.

The Dogs were frantic early on. Collingwood went after the ball, too, but when the Bulldogs got to it they moved it quickly. They had spoken in the rooms before the game, said Hunter, about making the more urgent start. They had 58 more possessions in the first quarter and created their five-to-three goal lead through brisk, precise ball movement and pressure.

They kept it going, too, absorbing a string of challenges from Collingwood and continuing to do the things they knew worked for them. They had Matthew Boyd, Shane Biggs and Jason Johannisen able to take care of their opponents and run the ball consistently from defence.

A little further up the field were the likes of Luke Dahlhaus, Bob Murphy, Marcus Bontempelli and Jackson Macrae, able to keep the ball moving at pace. Such was the speed and intensity at which they played, they were able to find forward targets in space, and set up reasonably easy shots on goal.

That's where the differences between the two teams collided. When they looked forward, the Bulldog runners had options. In the first quarter it felt like Stewart Crameri was everywhere. At times, Tory Dickson and Jake Stringer seemed to be the ones bobbing up, finding space and taking marks. For a later patch it was Jack Redpath charging out from the goal square. Those four players kicked seven goals between them but also got out of each other's way at the right times and made sure they kept getting the ball to ground so that smaller players could score.

Collingwood knew before they went in that they needed to find new ways to create goals. Without Travis Cloke and Jamie Elliott they were missing their best tall and best small. At times, it felt like they blew some chances to get the ball into good spots simply because things weren't as predictable as usual. At other times, they were able to find their talls. Brodie Grundy kicked two goals as part of a much broader game. Jesse White didn't play particularly well but was able to add two, too. Darcy Moore scored five: in career game three he was quick, athletic and highly exciting.

What the Pies didn't have was the same number of small goalkickers, or the sort of reliable, clean delivery the Bulldog targets found themselves on the end of. A few times, long, direct kick ins by Tyson Goldsack helped create goals. When the Pies did score, they were able to score quite quickly. But they weren't able to do that while slowing the Bulldogs up for long enough, or to lock the ball in their forward line for long enough to create pressure and force shots..

This was a good game. Collingwood hung in, persisted and the Bulldogs were up for it each time. It wasn't until Mitch Wallis snapped a low, angled snap with a few minutes to go then went into the centre square and won two clearances that it felt like the Dogs had done just about enough.

Hunter was pleased that they held off the last-quarter challenge, but also those that came before it. "We knew they were going to play well and keep coming but I thought we kept trying to play on the edge and keep trying to win the game," he said. "The intensity had gone out of our game in the last couple of weeks, but we got it back and now we've got to keep it like that."