COLLINGWOOD'S American Pie is set to return from a tight hamstring to face North Melbourne and help correct some of last week's forward woes, coach Nathan Buckley says.

Mason Cox, a critical presence with his ability to mark or bring the ball to ground, was a late out against West Coast, and the Magpies kicked just nine goals from 53 inside 50s in his absence.

His replacement in attack, Ben Crocker, is 23cm shorter than the 211cm giant and won only eight disposals, kicked one behind and gave away three free kicks in the 35-point loss.

"We expect him to be right. He got through (today's training) session and has come good," Buckley told reporters at the Holden Centre.

"He was touch and go last week, but it wasn't worth the risk, because he just simply wasn't ready to go in our medicos' eyes. We expect him to be right for Saturday.

"(He's) massive (for us) in more ways than one. He's an important part of it and we need to continue to find ways of being able to get around any reliance on any one individual.

"But his role, in particular, we weren't able to replace due to availability. We missed it last week, but that wasn't the whole picture for us – there is plenty of improvement."

This is the second in a fascinating four-week block for Collingwood, with Richmond and Sydney to follow in the next fortnight.

In-form Brisbane, Port Adelaide and Fremantle follow to round out the home and away season.

Buckley preferred to focus on the upcoming challenge the Kangaroos presented, particularly in contested ball, their ball movement and with their strong bookends.

"It is (a big period for us)," Buckley said.

"We really have been working in one-week blocks internally and we were disappointed we weren't able to get the job done last week.

"We've reviewed that and had a look at the areas we think we weren't quite as sharp in as we have been, so we're really keen to remedy that.

"We're focusing on what we can bring to the table against a good opposition this week and we know we'll be tested."

Darcy Moore, who played his first match last week since round eight because of a hamstring injury, is the obvious choice to mind North's Coleman Medal leader Ben Brown.

The Pies have fewer options in that regard, with reliable defender Lynden Dunn rupturing the ACL in his left knee against Gold Coast in late June.

Buckley saw "encouraging signs" in Moore's comeback game.

"We'll have a very similar tall back set-up going into this week and our tall-small balance will look very similar to how it has for the majority of the year," the coach said.

"We've been able to defend pretty well behind the ball, as well as supporting those defenders with our pressure on the ball, so Darcy looked pretty good last week.

"We probably lost a couple more one-on-ones behind the ball than we have on average this year and playing against some pretty good players in (Josh) Kennedy, (Jack) Darling etc."

Star midfielder Adam Treloar (hamstring) was able to increase to jogging, but still might not make it back before finals.