COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley has downplayed the extent that poor goalkicking contributed to the Magpies' loss to Geelong on Friday night, but admitted it was something his team needed to improve. 

Travis Cloke's pulled set shot from 25m out at the six-minute mark of the final quarter was the most glaring miss on a poor night for Collingwood in front of goal.

Click here to watch Nathan Buckley's full post-match press conference 

At the time, the Pies were riding a wave of momentum that had seen them kicked five of the last six goals to cut the Cats' lead from a game-high 60 points late in the second term to 30 points. 

Jesse White would goal eight minutes later to bring the Pies back to within 23 points, but Cloke's staggering miss at such a crucial time had to suck some life out of the Pies' bid for an unlikely comeback win.

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Cloke's error was far from the only one for the Pies.

In a six-minute patch late in the second term, White, Scott Pendlebury and Jamie Elliott all missed set shots they would have expected to kick, allowing the Cats to go into half-time with a 52-point lead.

White's miss was particularly galling because the Cats rushed the ball down the ground from the following kick-in to set up a coast-to-coast goal that was converted by Mitch Clark.

Asked after the match whether Cloke's last-quarter miss had deflated his team, Buckley downplayed its significance.

"We kicked 5.8 from 14 set shots on goal and Geelong kicked 4.4 from 10 so I didn't think their set-shot kicking was great and I didn't think ours was great," Buckley said. 

"We obviously flitted away more chances than we'd like to and even when we weren't in the game early we were missing chances just to keep us in touch. 

"We're all looking for a pivotal moment, but it's an area that we need to improve."

Buckley defended his decision to start young defender Jack Frost on Geelong's Tom Hawkins despite the huge influence the spearhead had on the Cats' game-winning seven-goal first term. 

Hawkins had a hand in six of those first-quarter goals, kicking just one himself but setting up his teammates brilliantly with his bullocking work and clean hands.

Frost had also conceded three goals to Hawkins in the last quarter of the Pies' 11-point loss to Geelong in round three last year.

However Buckley did not regret starting Frost on Hawkins even after Nathan Brown largely curtailed the big Cat when moved onto him late in the first quarter.

"Frost was playing his fifth game of footy in [round three last year] and he's had a full season since and we've backed him with great confidence against all comers," Buckley said. 

"He's been our best defender for the last 12 months and I feel absolutely confident in that decision being right and I feel absolutely confident that the decision to make the switch when we made it was the right decision. 

"Hawkins is a great player, Frosty is a young defender that's still learning the ropes but he's stood up time after time. 

"I've still got great confidence in him and he'll do some great jobs for us going forward."

Buckley said Steele Sidebottom, who has been sidelined since round one with a broken thumb, would not be ready to return against Richmond next Sunday. 

"He's only just getting a handle now on where his thumb's at after getting the guard off," Buckley said.

"We won't put a player that's half-backed in."

The Magpies coach said Paul Seedsman (glute) would be assessed in the nine-day break before the Tigers clash.