After the NAB Cup loss to Melbourne, Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says there is work to be done, with his team not playing its best football and too many of his better players down on their efforts.

He said he was pleased to have injected game time into senior players such as Travis Cloke, Ben Reid, Sharrod Wellingham, Darren Jolly and Scott Pendlebury, which was measured for some given the six-day break ahead of Friday night's clash with Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.

Read the match report from Saturday night's loss.

He named Tom Young (20 touches, 10 contested) and Peter Yagmoor (14 touches, four rebounds) as young players who impressed at times, but overall, said the team lacked consistency. 

"On exposed form, there were quite a number of young blokes who showed cameos but I think what they did, and what we showed and not just from our young players but our senior players is, that if your best efforts are sevens, eights, nines out of 10, that's all good," Buckley said.

"But, when your worst efforts are twos and threes, and not sixes and sevens, that's when you get exposed.

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"We weren't anywhere near our best footy tonight. Our best players didn't play their best footy, our young players were exposed and showed glimpses but we need to be more consistent than that if we're going to win games of footy."

Senior ruckman Jolly played only the first half, and forward Chris Dawes made periodic appearances as his supporting act before Jonathon Ceglar and Shae McNamara came on after the break.

Buckley said the Pies would continue to look at using Dawes as an occasional back-up option while Cameron Wood worked his way back from post-season shoulder surgery, and Ceglar, McNamara and Jarrod Witts gained experience.

"We need to have a look at that. Cameron Wood is still a couple of weeks away, Jonathon Ceglar, we wanted to see how he was going to go as a No.1 ruck, and we saw that throughout the second half, he wasn't too bad," he said.

"To see Dawesy come in and pinch hit for six to eight minutes a quarter, I think we need to explore that option as the season progresses."

The Pies reported no injuries, and defender Harry O'Brien is expected to play on Friday night.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.