COLLINGWOOD defender Simon Buckley believes the depth of the playing squad will be the key if the Pies are to go back-to-back in 2011.

After being named as an emergency on seven occasions last season, Buckley admitted being frustrated over his inability to get into the senior line-up last season.

But he conceded the fight for positions will hold the team in good stead as round one fast approaches.

"Last year I was emergency quite a few times as there are so many guys playing really well week in, week out," Buckley said.

"But that is the strength of the club. There is so much depth. If someone goes down, somebody can step up into the side."

After crossing from the Demons at the end of 2009, 23-year-old Buckley said he is finally reaping the rewards on the field as this year's pre-season is the first he has enjoyed injury-free since 2008.

"The goal was to get the fitness and strength up. It's been a couple of years but finally I have got the body right," he said.

"It's certainly better than it was this time last year when I played a couple of NAB Cup games and didn't get a kick."

The Magpies cemented a berth in the semi-finals of the NAB Cup following their 14-point win over the Sydney Swans on Friday night, and Buckley admitted his team came prepared for a scrap against John Longmire's men.

"Going into the game, we knew they haven't beaten us since 2005 so they were going to come out firing.

"They had a pretty good side and they came at us a couple of times and the pleasing thing was we held them off in the end and our structures held up."

There were four lead changes in the third quarter as the Pies held a slender two-point buffer going into the final break, which drew some strong words from the senior players.

Buckley offered insight into the three-quarter time huddle, as the senior players spoke to the rest of the team before they were addressed by stand-in coach Matthew Lappin.

"It was pretty much to reinforce our structures," he said.

"We found that when they got back into the game, they were dictating us so we just had to get back playing our brand of footy, our structures and set-ups and that was the thing that won us the game in the end."