DESPITE the ease of Saturday night's win against the Brisbane Lions, Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley believes the team is closer than ever to attaining the standard desire from a group chasing a second premiership.

Collingwood blew the Lions away at the Gabba, producing an inspired first quarter that took the game away from the home team and set up a 58-point thrashing.

The night was soured by the loss of defender Nathan Brown, who limped from the field with suspected medial ligament damage to his left knee, but Buckley was talking up the precision and intensity with which his charges attacked the contest.

"That was a lot closer to how we want to play," Buckley said.

"I think we've progressed steadily throughout the year - every game is an opportunity to improve on the performance before.

"I thought our intensity in defence was 10 or 15 per cent up on where we were last week and that gives us the opportunity to perhaps be more attacking.

"It's a bit of the chicken or the egg - if you attack well, you can defend well and if you defend well, you can attack well."

Both sides of Collingwood's game will need to be in fine fettle in the next fortnight - the Magpies play Geelong on Friday night before tackling the high-flying Crows in Adelaide the following week.

One player Buckley sees as integral to the challenge is Alan Didak.

Didak played his first game of the season against the Lions and worked into the match nicely, ending with a goal and 25 disposals.

Buckley described Didak as "silk" and said the added dimension he brings to Collingwood in attack will be crucial as the season wears on.

"Dids was good. His spark was there for us. He created opportunities and he's a class player with the ball in his hands," Buckley said.

Buckley also noted the contribution of Ben Sinclair, Sharrod Wellingham and Tyson Goldsack, and believed the experienced Didak would complement the younger brigade well.

"Those three boys in particular have added some speed and real defensive pressure in our front half," Buckley said.

"Alan is that silk type player. Hopefully he can be the cream on the top of the cake for us."

The cake, as always with the Pies, is made from a deep and talented midfield and Steele Sidebottom's game showed he has become an integral ingredient to an already formidable onball mix.

Sidebottom was close to best afield, shading champion pair Dane Swan (34 disposals, two goals) and Scott Pendlebury (33 disposals) for touches with 35 and adding a couple of goals for good measure.

Buckley said Sidebottom's work rate made him capable of consistently competing with the League's elite midfielders.

"He's had a great year," Buckley said.

"He's really built and progressed. He works so hard; he's a hard runner up and back - two-way running."

While Brown's absence will be keenly felt by the Magpies, fellow defender Heath Shaw said the list contained enough depth to cover for him and fellow injured tall Chris Tarrant.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs