WHEN a team wins by 117 points, like Collingwood did on Sunday afternoon, it's easy to focus on the players with the highest number of possessions and most goals beside their names.

And there's no doubt that Dane Swan, who collected 38 touches, and Steele Sidebottom, who booted four goals, were two of the driving forces behind the massive victory over North Melbourne.

But given the Magpies restricted the Kangaroos to just three goals, and held them goalless in the final quarter, it would be remiss to overlook the contributions of Ben Reid, Alan Toovey and Luke Rounds.

Reid backed up his impressive effort against Hawthorn in round 15 by shutting North Melbourne key forward Drew Petrie out of the game.

When the final siren sounded, Reid had 10 possessions and six marks to his name.

More importantly, he'd restricted Petrie to only five disposals and had kept him goalless.

"As a backline, we really pride ourselves on doing our best regardless of the scoreline," a smiling Toovey said in Collingwood's bubbling change rooms.

While driving rain tumbled down on the MCG, Toovey roamed across half-back, cutting off the Kangaroos on the rare occasions they were able to drive the ball into attack.

"I think it was one of the best four-quarter efforts we've had as a team since I've played here," he said.

"We just went for it. We weren't worried about the conditions and I think that approach really paid off."

Rounds produced perhaps the most eye-catching performance of the three.

In just his second game, he tagged North Melbourne skipper Brent Harvey and held him to just 12 possessions.

"He acquitted himself quite well," Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse said.

"He will draw a lot from that because the two goals that Boomer kicked were a direct result of a lack of senior football.

"That's a great lesson to play on a bloke like that. His role was to play as a back, and run around with one of their forwards, and I thought generally he did pretty well."

Another player drew praise from the coach, despite having less than spectacular number on the stats sheet, was debutant Lachlan Keefe.

The Queenslander, who came into the team as a replacement for injured big man Chris Dawes, spent most of the afternoon in the forward 50 where he picked up 11 possessions and took five marks.

"It was a terrific step up for him," Malthouse said. "The more you can play these players the better."