Luke Ball and Travis Cloke are set to play against Port Adelaide on Saturday, while Dayne Beams will miss one more week before making his long-awaited return via the VFL.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said Beams was making strong progress after experiencing a "breakthrough" in his rehabilitation in the past few weeks and had gone ahead in "leaps and bounds" in the past month.

"He won't play this week but if he gets through the next week of training he should play in the VFL the following week," Buckley said on Wednesday.

Cloke had finger surgery during the bye while Ball was a late withdrawal from the round 12 game against the Bulldogs with a calf injury.

The Magpies' injury list is reducing slowly with Clinton Young now back in the VFL and Tyson Goldsack impressing during training to indicate an earlier return than anticipated previously. Goldsack is listed as being one to two weeks away.

"We would like to have better availability, but it is a situation that we manage as best we can and the individuals themselves have to carry some frustration," Buckley said.

Buckley said the Magpies were in no doubt they would face stiff opposition on Saturday afternoon at AAMI Park.

"The fact is they (Port Adelaide) are a top eight side," the coach said.

"[They're] very solid structurally, still very young, lot of run in their legs and very hard to beat."

Collingwood has conceded just 155 points in the past three games and a combined total of five goals in the first half of those games. Buckley said the team had improved defensively in the past six weeks and the scores in recent weeks had reflected some improvement.

"We want to build on that," Buckley said. "We've been able to do it for parts of the games but we need to do it against better opposition for longer."

Buckley also addressed rumours of Rodney Eade's possible appointment as Melbourne's senior coach.

The day after Melbourne sacked Mark Neeld, the Pies director of coaching admitted that he still had a desire for a senior job, although he was happy at Collingwood.

Buckley said Collingwood was the beneficiary of Eade's "burning desire" to coach and that his main focus remained on his role at Collingwood.

"In our conversations he is totally committed to the role he has got at Collingwood in 2013," Buckley said.