GOALKICKING great Jason Dunstall doubts Collingwood star Travis Cloke can radically improve his sketchy accuracy.

Cloke's set shots on goal, especially from close range, continue to be a glaring problem.

The Magpies spearhead missed a sitter at a crucial moment in the loss last Friday night to Geelong.

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Cloke has kicked 404 goals in his 222-game career at an accuracy rate of around 55 per cent.

Dunstall is the third-highest goalkicker in AFL history, booting 1254 for Hawthorn at 66 per cent.

"The biggest issue here is we can't expect too much," Dunstall said on Fox Footy on Monday night.

"He might be able to improve it a little bit, but the bottom line is he kicks at 55 per cent.

"You can improve things to a small degree.

"If I was Travis, I'd be trying to get up around 60 per cent ... but he's never going to be a 65 per cent-plus kicker."

Dunstall said it was clearly playing on Cloke's mind, but added that technique was another big issue.

"He does have legitimately poor faults in the way he sets up and the way he kicks," Dunstall said.

Former Brisbane Lions captain Jonathan Brown, who kicked 594 goals at 65 per cent, added Cloke appeared to be talking to too many people about the problem.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley agreed with Brown.

"One of the other things that's clear with Trav and many others is too many voices and too many opinions aren't helpful," Buckley said.

But the Magpies coach was far more optimistic than Dunstall about Cloke's capacity to improve his accuracy.

Buckley pointed to North Melbourne goalsneak Lindsay Thomas, who overcame a particularly bad bout of the "yips".

"You can't stamp your foot and it just happens – I've tried," Buckley said.

"It can be done, so we'll keep looking towards that."

Buckley added that Cloke's goalkicking was well down the list of reasons why the Magpies lost to Geelong.

And he said other than goalkicking, Cloke had shown much-improved form.

"His first six weeks this year compared to his first six last year are chalk and cheese," Buckley said.

"He's so engaged, he's leading so well.

"His communication with his teammates - he's doing 95 per cent of what he needs to do really well.

"We'll just keep working on him ... and I have full confidence that he'll give everything he has to for his teammates to be the best he can be."