Collingwood fans frustrated by the inaccuracy in front of goal against Brisbane last week shouldn't despair - it was a long way short of the club's highest tally of behinds kicked in a game.

The Magpies' Gabba score of 20.23 (143) was a source of much discussion on the night, but what mattered more was the four premiership points on offer.

That tally was seven behinds off the club’s record. Two pairs of 30 behinds came in Grand Final seasons - the first back in 1935, when the Machine was in the process of being modelled to chase more success, and the second in 1970, when a flag almost went begging later that same year due to another dose of inaccurate shooting for goal.

Both of those games came against the same side - North Melbourne.

In the round eight, 1935 game at Victoria Park, the Magpies still had a relatively young side, though some of the cornerstones of the Machine were still playing in the match, including Harry Collier, Gordon Coventry, Charlie Dibbs, Harold Rumney, Percy Bowyer, and Len Murphy. But there were also a host of other impressive young players, especially Jack Regan, Alby Pannam, Phonse Kyne and Fred Froude.

STATS: Collingwood v North Melbourne, Round 8 1935.

The Magpies won the game against the 'Shinboners' by 80 points, but the inaccuracy ran from start to finish on a day in which "sweeping winds" lashed Melbourne.

The first term yielded 4.12 for Collingwood, 2.3 followed in the second, 8.8 in the third, and 2.7 in the last. The final score was 16.30 (126) to North Melbourne's 6.10 (46).

The Argus said the game was "utterly devoid of excitement and enthusiasm, and for the greater part lacking in system ... Sixteen goals, 30 behinds! It does not sound like Collingwood, whose forwards have displayed admirable accuracy this season ... even when the strong wind, which blew down and slightly across the ground from the railway end, is taken into consideration, the kicking was very weak and inaccurate."

Pannam kicked 4.4. Harry Collier scored 2.5. Gordon Coventry could manage only 2.5, while Kyne scored 1.3. Several months later the Magpies won the 1935 premiership, kicking 11.12 (78) to down South Melbourne.

That 30 behinds tally was repeated 35 years later, when Collingwood took on North Melbourne at Arden Street, in a Round 6, 1970 clash. The Magpies won the game by 66 points.

STATS: Collingwood v North Melbourne, Round 6 1970.

During a bizarre third quarter Collingwood scored 6.16, finishing with a score-line of 17.30 (132).

The margin should have been greater, if not for the Magpies' poor kicking. The Age’s Ron Carter wrote: "Three North Melbourne players sat down in Bourke St during Friday's Vietnam moratorium - and on Saturday it looked as though they had been joined by the rest of the team for a 'sit in' at the Arden St Oval … The Magpies' score of 17.30 could easily have been the other way around - 30.17 ... they would never have believed it was possible to kick so inaccurately even though they had concentrated on every shot for goal."

Robert Dean, in his seventh game, had replaced the injured champion forward Peter McKenna (sprained ankle) at full-forward, and the 19-year-old kicked 6.5 in "a good day's work."

The win maintained Collingwood’s unbeaten run after six rounds, further enhancing their premiership favouritism, which they held all season.

But the inaccuracy came back to haunt the Magpies at the worst possible time. Some costly misses in the first half of the 1970 Grand Final against Carlton left the door ajar for the Blues to make the most famous comeback in finals football. Collingwood had dominated the first term, but the 12 scoring shots returned an inaccurate 4.8.

It was 10.13 to 4.5 at half-time, with a margin of 44 points than could easily have been more than 60 points. And as the Blues stormed over the top of them in the second half, those misses would never be forgotten.