Collingwoodfc.com.au dissects the Magpies’ 23-point loss to Carlton at the MCG on Friday night.

The Result
Collingwood 8.14 (62)
Carlton 12.13 (85)

Goals - Cloke 2, Paine 2, Goldsack, Sidebottom, Thomas, Wellingham
Disposals - Swan 31, Thomas 27, Sidebottom 26, Beams 24, Blair 23

Outside of a finals defeat, a loss to Carlton must rank at the top of the ‘do not want’ list for Collingwood supporters as they start each season. Unfortunately, the Magpies went down to the Navy Blues for the second time in 2012, ending a 10 game winning streak that ironically began after the Pies lost to the Blues in round three.

Collingwood kicked the first goal of the night but it was all Carlton from thereon as the Blues played with a sense of flair that left their opponents flatfooted. The Pies still had their opportunities to pull off a come from behind victory and came within three points of snatching the lead when Jackson Paine kicked his second midway through the third term. But it seemed that Chris Yarran’s goal 10 minutes later broke the back of the Collingwood resistance as they were outscored by two goals in the final term.

Bucks’ take
“There's been patches in our recent weeks that we were looking to improve on and (where) we probably gave the opposition a look. But I would have thought that the patches we had tonight were good patches and the large majority of them were poor patches. We've sort of been getting what we want 75-80 per cent of the game and allowing the opposition [to play their game] for the rest of it. We probably got what we want for 15-20 per cent of the game tonight and allowed the opposition to dictate the rest of it.” - Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley.

Hear more from Bucks in his post match press conference.

Over the fence
“Let's take away the opposition, I think it was the way we played the game. I thought it was outstanding, I thought our effort and our intensity to maintain that over four quarters was brilliant. It's always nice against the arch-enemy, but at the end of the day that's how we want to play football and that was very pleasing.” - Carlton coach Brett Ratten.

Read the match report here.

The first taste
The taste of defeat is bitter, and even more so when you experience it for the first time. That was the Friday night fate of Jamie Elliott and Marley Williams. The pair debuted together against Adelaide six weeks ago and have not missed a match since as the Magpies accumulated 10 victories on the trot. They have been so impressive since debuting but found the going difficult as Carlton cut loose, with Williams under duress in the second half due to a shoulder injury.

Under pressure
An interesting stat to examine is often an individual player’s kick-to-handball ratio. For a player such as Alex Fasolo, more often than not the number in his kicks column outweighs that in his handballs. This wasn’t the case on Friday night as he amassed 22 possessions, nine of which were kicks. It was only the fifth time in 26 senior games that he’s had more handballs than kicks, perhaps highlighting the amount of pressure he and his teammates were under from their Carlton opponents. The Magpies were out-tackled by the Blues who recorded 70 to the Pies’ 50, indicating their ferocity at the ball all night long.

View the best photos from Friday night's match.

Efficiency plus
Jackson Paine had only two kicks for the night but made his moments count, kicking a goal with each kick. He brought Collingwood to within three points during the third quarter when he goaled on the run, but was then subbed out of the match as the Magpies released the pace of Ben Sinclair from the interchange bench.

The medical room
The Magpies sustained two injuries in the loss to the Blues, with Dale Thomas leaving the field temporarily to tend to an ankle injury, while Marley Williams sustained a shoulder complaint.

Eddie’s the barometer
Not our Eddie, their Eddie. In Carlton’s last three wins against Collingwood, Eddie Betts has kicked a total of 13 goals with a high of five in round three. But in Collingwood’s five wins in-between, Betts has kicked only eight goals. With this in mind, Magpie fans will be keeping a close eye on the dangerous Blue in the side’s next clash with the old enemy.

Consider this
Last time Collingwood lost to Carlton, it sparked a 10-game winning streak. Will history repeat?

What does it mean?
-    Collingwood is still in the top four, and is still equal first with percentage separating Sydney, West Coast, Adelaide and the Magpies who are all on 11 wins from 14 games.
-    Dayne Beams missed out on reaching the 30 possession mark for only the second time from his past 10 starts. For the record, he still managed 24 touches.
-    In the past fortnight, Darren Jolly has clocked up his two highest hitout tallies from his 53 games for Collingwood. He managed 39 hitouts against Matthew Kreuzer, and has only had more hitouts in nine of his 219 games.

VFL
Collingwood was looking to make it two wins in a row when it met Williamstown at Burbank Oval on Sunday afternoon but were thwarted by a hard-running opponent that blew the Pies away with 20 scoring shots to seven in the second half. In better news for the Magpies, Chris Tarrant played his first match since the Queen’s Birthday win over the Demons and booted four goals from full forward.

Looking ahead…
The challenge doesn’t get any easier for the Magpies who will take on Geelong, their Grand Final nemesis from last season, on Saturday night at the MCG. The Cats were pushed all the way by Gold Coast on Sunday and only won by 14 points, making for what appears to be a very even contest under lights at the home of football.