IT'S NOT often a team coming off a 75-point win needs to improve in a lot of areas, but that's exactly what Collingwood's Heath Shaw says the Magpies are aiming for this weekend.
The Pies take on North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday and Shaw says his side will be looking to eliminate the mental lapses that saw Port Adelaide come storming back in the third quarter of their first round clash.
"When a team kicks six goals in a row on you you're obviously doing something wrong or they're doing something right," Shaw said from Gosch's Paddock on Friday.
"If a team gets two goals in a row then that's a run on and we want to stop it there.
"In patches we were really good and then in patches we were a bit disappointing [last weekend]. Obviously it's round one and we want to tweak our game as much as we can and hopefully try and get that consistency over the four quarters.
"It's what every team looks for … it's another opportunity to get our structures right and to try and get that consistency throughout the game."
Shaw said skipper and defensive general Nick Maxwell is pushing to return from internal injuries next week, but he was generally pleased with the way the younger defenders and returned veteran Chris Tarrant were able to cover for his absence.
Coach Mick Malthouse waited until midway through the final term to substitute Andrew Krakouer with Brent Macaffer and Shaw said it would be a learning process for all clubs as they adjusted to the new rule.
"It was the first full game hit out with the new [interchange rule] and I think we're going to learn from that and hopefully we can improve over the coming weeks," he said.
"If you don't have any injuries are you just going to use it tactically or are you just going to let that guys sit there? We'll see over the next few weeks how that pans out.
"I think it worked pretty well for us. We didn't have any injuries to deal with. Mick said that he didn't know whether he was going to make the substitution or not, so for us it's just going to be a week by week sort of thing."
The recently adopted concussion rule was another talking point in the aftermath of an opening round that saw the rule tested on several occasions with Joel Selwood and Jonathan Brown suffering major injuries.
Despite the issues around head high contact, Shaw did not foresee a time when helmets would be become widely used across the competition.
"As a whole I don't think so, but it's each to their own," he said.
"Everyone's different in the way they prepare and the way they like to set up when they go out to play.
"I don't think every single player would wear a helmet, but you might see in the future more and more players who are in and under like Jude Bolton or Luke Ball might start wearing helmets."
Heath Shaw is a $334,200 defender in the Toyota AFL Dream Team competition.
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