1. Collingwood's forward line rotation policy pays off
After some minor foxing during the week when he wouldn't guarantee if the available Mason Cox and Ben Reid would play, Nathan Buckley named them both and positioned the forward line around them. While the Magpies’ attacking structure misfired in round one and was dealt a blow last week when Darcy Moore went forward and got hurt, a rolling rotation of midfielders at the feet of the tall pair proved to be the Pies' biggest weapon. Josh Thomas (five goals), Will Hoskin-Elliott, Steele Sidebottom (three each), Adam Treloar and James Aish (one each) and Travis Varcoe (three goal assists) were part of a potent and unpredictable formation that worked.

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WATCH: Will Hoskin-Elliott runs into goal

2. Thomas repaying the faith
He wasn't the first Thomas to kick a goal, with those honours going to former Pie Dale who slotted his one and only major just 40 seconds into the game, but he was the most prolific. It was back in 2015 that Thomas and former Pie Lachie Keeffe accepted two-year bans after testing positive to a banned drug they unknowingly ingested in an illicit substance. Keeffe is now at the Giants, but the Pies persisted with Thomas, whose early career was littered with injuries. After playing the last nine games of 2017, Thomas is in great form and showcased on Friday night an additional positive of his game with a personal best bag of five goals.   

WATCH: Josh Thomas wobbles it home

3. Backline blunders linger for the Blues
It's official; the honeymoon is over for Liam Jones, while young backman Jacob Weitering is still struggling for confidence. Beaten last week by Tom Lynch, Jones battled on multiple opponents after starting on Reid, with his night summed up by a dangerous second-quarter tunnel against Tom Phillips. Weitering was better than last week and had 11 touches but lacked composure at times, flubbing a simple pass to Matthew Kennedy in the second term before handing an easy goal to Reid with a free kick. Losing Caleb Marchbank to a first-half ankle injury didn't help, particularly as the Pies forced constant match-up changes with a slew of players rotating through attack. 

WATCH: Blues hurt as Marchbank injures ankle

4. "Tonihgt" was the night for the Pies…
Even if their cheer squad needs a new spellchecker. When Collingwood’s banner was unfurled before the teams ran out, it read, "Let's do this Pies, show those Blues, we own tonihgt (sic), #forever. It was up long enough for eagle-eyed spectators to send it viral on social media, but also for someone amongst the cheer squad to notice the error. They hastily whipped it down and switched the letters before proudly lifting the corrected product for the team to shred apart. Club president Eddie McGuire must have missed this one, given he declared back in his early tenure he would sign off on the banner drafts after a spate of grammatical mistakes. 

WATCH: Magpies' banner clanger

5. Bad bounces
We all know the umpires wanted it gone, but the AFL Commission last year decided to retain the game's most unique feature that was first introduced back in 1887. It's fair to say there hasn't been a great deal of consistency with the action so far this season with a large number of crooked bounces recalled across the competition, and Friday night was no exception with Jeff Dalgleish in particular a repeat offender in the third quarter.