COLLINGWOOD'S big win over Melbourne in the Queen's Birthday clash at the MCG on Monday has given the Magpies a much-needed percentage-boost, but coach Nathan Buckley blames his club's tough draw for making its percentage a talking point.

After drubbing the Demons by 83 points, the Magpies' percentage jumped from 97.4 to 105.6. In the process, they have gone from having easily the worst percentage among the top 11 teams to bridging the gap considerably.

It's an important development given it's a statistic that could help decide the Pies' destiny.

However, Buckley is confident that it will all balance out once his side plays more lowly opponents.

"In the end, your premiership points and your percentage look after itself," Buckley said. 

"I think what this weekend, and today, highlights to us is how heavily your draw can impact on your percentage or some of your KPIs (key performance indicators).

"We've played every team inside the top eight in our first 10 weeks (and) played North Melbourne, Brisbane and St Kilda outside (the eight). Melbourne's the first team from the bottom four that we've played, and our KPIs (today) are huge comparative to our first 10 weeks. It changes things immensely.

"If we'd have had two or three of these performances in the first 10 weeks, we wouldn’t be talking about our percentage. The scoreboard would look a lot better for us, but it's not the way it is … But tonight gives our percentage a bit of a kick at the very least."

The Pies' percentage would have been even higher if they had kicked straighter. They blazed 17.20 and several other shots missed everything.

Of great concern was that the chief culprits were key forwards Travis Cloke (3.3 and two out of bounds on the full) and Quinten Lynch (1.3). 

Lynch's three misses came in the first term, the third of which barely scraped through for a behind from 25m and the slightest of angles. 

The former Eagle's relief was palpable when he finally broke through for a goal, via a snap from the goalsquare in the second term.

"We would have liked to have finished better, and it was not just those two," Buckley said. "We had 37 scoring shots and probably missed another five or six.

"We were really slow when we got the all at about 55 (metres out). I think blokes were really keen on going for long shots at goal, and we kicked a few long points and a few that fell short, a few out of bounds on the full, so we probably had 45 shots on goal (and) we would've liked a better return than 17 goals.

"We're doing a lot of work on it, but clearly it's an area that we need to get better at. We can’t afford to (waste) our chances when we play better opposition."

Buckley was pleased with the way his side had played in the last three quarters when they outscored the Demons 16.14 to just 4.4, but said his charges "can be better".

He said they "mucked around" with the ball too much at times, with their kick-to-handball ratio of almost 1:1 being less than ideal.