Buckley had called on his men to "harden up" after the Pies' upset loss to Carlton in round seven, with midfielder Adam Treloar suggesting that Collingwood needed "tough love" to turn things around.

The Magpies duly responded, trouncing the Lions by 78 points on an evening in which they had 70 inside 50s, and 43 scoring shots.

Speaking upon arrival at Melbourne airport, Pendlebury said there had been no sugar-coating from Buckley prior to the Gabba clash. "He always calls a spade a spade. And that's what he did last week," Pendlebury said on Sunday.

"We reviewed the [Carlton] game closely and then went out and trained really well, and just focused on the things that we wanted to get right from our point of view, and we did that for good portions of the game last night and you see what happens when we do it well. So it should give the guys a lot of confidence."

In thrashing the Lions, the Magpies eased some of the pressure on Buckley - at least momentarily. The coach has come under immense scrutiny after a sluggish start to the season, a stark contrast to the buoyant feeling surrounding the club in the pre-season. The situation had not been assisted by the comments of Buckley's predecessor Mick Malthouse, who claimed on radio last week that the Pies had been on the verge of a "mini-dynasty" when Buckley took the reins ahead of the 2012 season.

Not that Pendlebury seemed too concerned with the spotlight that had been directed at his coach. "If you speak to Bucks, I don't think he worries too much about the external pressure. Internally we've got our expectations, and that's what we're trying to strive for."

Having taken a beating in the contested ball stakes against the Blues, Pendlebury noted that it was pleasing to have comfortably won that category against the Lions. Collingwood had 38 more contested possessions than the hosts. "[We had to] get our process right, get our structures right, but more importantly just work together and go out there and try and win that contested ball, which we did, so it was pleasing from that aspect."

Yet while saying that the mood around the team is "better than it's been", Pendlebury stressed there was considerable room for improvement. "In footy you move on pretty quickly, so acknowledge last night was a step in the right direction and we've got a big test this week against Geelong.

"We just need to acknowledge there's a lot of work to go."

The Pies (3-5) regained Travis Varcoe, Ben Sinclair and Taylor Adams for Saturday night's match, but still have a host of senior players to return.

Ben Reid (shoulder), Tom Langdon (ankle), Tyson Goldsack (thumb) and Marley Williams (foot) are all in line to return in the next fortnight.

Pendlebury said giant American Mason Cox would "be fine" despite having his hand trodden on by fellow forward Darcy Moore.

Out-of-favour key forward Travis Cloke was held goalless on Saturday in the VFL, and appears unlikely to displace any of Moore, Cox or Jesse White for the Pies' MCG clash with Geelong on Saturday. The tall trio kicked one, four and three goals respectively against the Lions. Yet while Cloke struggled again at the lower level, dumped midfielder James Aish impressed, laying 13 tackles against the VFL Cats.