Proud Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley heaped praise on his senior players for helping the club overcome a tumultuous week by humbling the Lions in Brisbane on Friday night.

A week that started with question marks surrounding the Magpies' on-field ability escalated when president Eddie McGuire became embroiled in a racial vilification furore.

But once inside the boundary line Collingwood put the dramas behind them, and Buckley was a satisfied man.

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Although admitting the jury was out on whether they had turned the corner, he said the ability to not be distracted by off-field controversies was impressive.

"Considering the tumult that took place and all of the stuff outside football, it was really well done by our playing group and our leaders in particular to maintain focus on what needed to be done," Buckley said.

"To go out and start that well was excellent.

"We thought we did a fairly good job as an inner sanctum to be able to redirect our energies back to what we're in control of."

Collingwood jumped the Lions and pressured them out of the contest to lead by 26 points at quarter-time.

Two players under the brightest spotlight were Harry O'Brien, who publicly criticised McGuire's comments, and indigenous teammate Andrew Krakouer.

Buckley said if neither felt capable of playing four strong quarters because of the emotional toll of the week, they wouldn't have to.

But both never gave it a thought.

"There was a lot of discussion about things other than football so what happens when that occurs is, no matter how minute it might be, your focus gets shifted to other areas," Buckley said.

"All credit to Harry and Andrew in that regard and their teammates for supporting them and for being able to maintain their focus as well."

Buckley said it was a far from perfect performance, but a step in the right direction after last week's mauling at the hands of the Swans.

Collingwood led by 45 points at half-time and dominated every facet of the game before dropping back a gear in the second half.

"It wasn't a complete performance, we've got the four points under trying circumstances during the week, we'll take that, but clearly after the start we had we would have been far happier if we were able to finish it off.

"As the leader of this footy team I set the bar high, I have really high expectations of this team. I thought we reached them in the first half but we fell way short in the second half.

"If that comes down to work rate or mental application to stay the course for four quarters, we'll continue to look at that and pick the players that are able to do it and omit the players that aren't."