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Assistant coach Gavin Brown says it was a focus of the team to start well against Essendon, something that turned out to be instrumental in the terrific round 16 victory.

A five-goal-to-one first quarter gave the Magpies the platform to build on, which they did successfully in the second term to open up a 39-point lead at the main break.

And while the Bombers challenged hard in the third term, the scoreboard pressure applied in the first half gave Collingwood the edge in the final term.

“It was a fantastic start, and we were really conscious that Essendon like to start well, so it was on our agenda,” Brown said on CTV’s The Weekend That Was at the Lexus Centre on Tuesday.

Brown emphasised it was particularly encouraging given the team managed to rebound strongly from what was a huge clash the week before with top-side Geelong.

“It was a big week the week before, and the boys have come out, and it was one of our best first quarters I think.”

Another positive to come out of the performance, from a team perspective, was that the side was able to kick more than 12 goals, and exceed 100 points, for the first time since the round 10 victory over Fremantle, something Brown puts down to simply getting the overall process right.

“We don’t necessarily go out there and try and kick 18, 19, 20 goals.

“The goals will look after themselves as long as we put everything else in place and the defensive side of our game’s going well and we’re sticking to the team set ups and rules and all those sorts of things.”

While frustrating that the Bombers were able to come back so hard and boot eight goals to four in the third term, Brown said the Magpies “didn’t panic”, and were able to regroup and go on to record a really important win.

“They (the Bombers) played some pretty good footy in that third quarter and we couldn’t quite match them.

“Luckily we did score a few goals along the way just to keep us in check and went on with the job in the last quarter. It was disappointing that they had such a good third quarter but pleasing that we were able to fight back.”

Brown also assessed the performances of Tarkyn Lockyer, Travis Cloke, Leon Davis and Simon Prestigiacomo, accompanied by match highlights, so don’t miss the latest edition of The Weekend That Was - FREE on CTV – by clicking the link at the top of this article.