COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse said he was "delighted" with his team's ability to maintain its structures without several key players during an 88-point thrashing of Melbourne at the MCG on Monday.

The Magpies entered the match without midfield stars Dane Swan (injured) and Dale Thomas (suspended), adding to the continued absence of injured ruckman Darren Jolly.

With three key players missing, the defending premiers were well served by several Magpies playing roles they're not accustomed to.

"I thought our structures held up," Malthouse said post-match.

"We rotated a lot of players through those to give them an opportunity in various roles.

"[Jarryd] Blair, [Simon] Buckley, [Alan] Didak, [first-gamer Alex] Fasolo to a degree, [Andrew] Krakouer, [John] McCarthy, [Heath] Shaw, [Steele] Sidebottom, and you can throw [Luke] Ball and [Sharrod] Wellingham in there for that matter, all played different roles at various stages and generally were pretty good."

Malthouse paid particular credit to Wellingham, who became a key midfield figure in the absence of his more celebrated teammates and responded with a career-best 37 disposals, which included 20 contested possessions, nine clearances, 12 inside 50s and a goal.

"Sharrod has always probably walked in the shadow of Swan and Ball and Pendlebury and perhaps even Dale Thomas," Malthouse said.

"Today he jumps up into the top three [midfielders] … and performs accordingly, which is terrific for him because there's a lot of players that don't grab the opportunity and fall away.

"So I hope now that Sharrod understands his value to the team and has similar games on a week-to-week basis."

Malthouse, who became the second person in history to coach 650 VFL/AFL matches after Collingwood legend Jock McHale, said preparation meant his players knew what do to even in unfamiliar roles.

"My belief since my Footscray days has always been to move forward, take what you can, and train up as many players in the correct procedure," he said.

"One of the things about it is predictability, and if the players play predictable football then we know where we're at."

Malthouse paid credit to club captain Nick Maxwell and vice-captain Scott Pendlebury for ensuring the Collingwood players remained focused on their objectives in the lead-up to the match.

"When the boys ran down the race, they'd already committed to getting things right and not leaving it to chance or luck," he said.

"I reminded them during the week, and Nick and Scott Pendlebury were outstanding during the week and match-day to ensure the playing group stayed focused … on just playing our style of game."