NATHAN Buckley said the Magpies lost their advantage early on Friday night against Hawthorn because of their inability to capitalise on scoring opportunities.  

The Pies were glaringly inaccurate in front of goal in the first quarter, kicking 2.7 with Travis Cloke, Chris Dawes, Darren Jolly and Alex Fasolo shanking shots.

It allowed the Hawks to remain in touch despite the Pies dominating Hawthorn in inside 50s (15 to seven) and scoring shots (nine to three).

Buckley said there was "no doubt" the Pies gave up a decided advantage with that inaccuracy on the way to their 22-point defeat.

"Being able to finish when you've got the ascendancy … it's a game of momentum, really," Buckley said.

"You either take advantage of it when you've got it and you try and hold the opposition when they've got it. For the most part, we didn't maximise our chances when we had the momentum, and we struggled to hold them back when they had it."

Buckley said the game opened up in the second quarter and caught the Pies out when it became what Scott Pendlebury labelled "fast-break footy".

"If you play an open field, somewhat uncontested brand of football against a side with the best foot skills in the competition, then you're going to struggle," Buckley said.

"We ebbed and flowed between getting the game back on our terms but just weren't able to do it for long enough."

Pendlebury, who was best afield for the Pies with 33 touches, said the Pies didn't cope once the game broke open.  

"If we didn't score, they scored. If they didn't score, we scored," Pendlebury said.

"It's not the way we want to play. We don't want to give up 37 shots on goal. It's something we have to work on."

The Pies played three debutants - Jackson Paine, Paul Seedsman and Peter Yagmoor - and youngsters Lachlan Keeffe, Ben Sinclair, Alex Fasolo and Luke Rounds.

Collingwood, which was without senior members such as Nick Maxwell, Chris Tarrant, Alan Didak, Ben Johnson, Sharrod Wellingham, Dayne Beams and Nathan Brown, fatigued towards the end.

"You can absolutely put that down to the youth in the side and the fact that we had seven players who have played 27 games of AFL in their legs. The guys that do have the experience end up working doubly hard potentially for that," Buckley said.

"It's the work rate of 22 players that's required over the course of four quarters.

"Whilst we lost the game in the end, and the last 15 minutes was fairly convincing to Hawthorn, there was some positive signs in the first three-and-a-half quarters."

Paine was the most prolific of the debutants with six possessions and one goal while Seedsman - who came on as the substitute in the third quarter for Yagmoor - had five touches and one clearance.

Yagmoor failed to touch the ball and laid two tackles.

"We've got guys that will slowly be coming back with experience but I wouldn't discount some of the performances from our young players tonight and the fact they're going to be mentally better prepared understanding what the game requires," Buckley said.

"I think you see some that stand up and handle it straight away, but we wouldn't have selected any of those players if we didn't think they were capable of it.

"I think we definitely threw them in the deep end, but ultimately our hand was forced in some ways. At the same time, we think they've got the talent to be able to do it."

Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.