On Sunday we went down to a very strong Geelong team at Burbank Oval by 33 points, but it was basically a poor first quarter where we allowed them to kick out to a six-goal lead with the wind that cost us.

We are now second on the ladder, with Geelong having taken over as the top team. For Magpie fans, though, there were again plenty of positives in terms of the performances of Collingwood-listed players.

Below is my assessment of each of the 11 Magpies who pulled on the Williamstown guernsey last weekend, exclusive to collingwoodfc.com.au.

Nathan Brown
Browny probably played his best game of the year. 15 possessions playing on Tom Hawkins, who had nine and kicked two goals, one was from a free kick from a stoppage so Browny wasn’t even on him, and he got one in the first minute from a spoil, and he crumbed it luckily, so Browny’s just getting better and better. That’s his third consistent game in a row now, and I know he’s probably set himself a target of four consistent games, and hopefully that might put his name up there. So he’d be pretty happy at the moment, he’s showing some pretty good signs, so he could be the next one to debut.

Chris Bryan
Chris was fantastic. His possession rate wasn't huge, but he had 35 hitouts, and he rucked pretty much 80 per cent of the game which is a big ask at VFL level these days, so he worked really hard.

Ryan Cook
Cooky didn’t have as big an impact as previous weeks. He’s been getting 25 possessions off the half back flank recently. He had 16 on Sunday, and was still pretty solid, so he’s in a good place and going well.

Ben Davies
Ben started really well, but then his possession-rate dropped off a little bit. I still thought he did some good things, there were just a couple of things in his game that reminded me of the early days when he was at the club, so whether his mindset just wasn’t quite right I’m not sure. But he was still ok with 17 touches.

Brad Dick
Dicky had a great first half again like he did the week before, and then after half time, whether they tightened up on him or he just tired, he only had the four possessions in the second half after having 10 in the first. We’re going to try a few different things this week to get him going after half time, maybe put him in the action rather than a half forward flank. He’s looking ok, he’s just got to work through those quieter times.

Sam Iles
Sam was solid again, very clean. It’s a credit to him, the way he’s dealt with being an emergency for Collingwood so many times. He just comes out and plays his game. They had a guy, Tim Callan, on him early to try and stop his influence, and then he went off him and it freed Sam up a bit and he got a bit of the ball and finished with 17 disposals. Plus, as an emergency, I looked after him a bit, so we didn’t want him to have to play a whole game and then have to front up the next day in case someone fell over, so I just looked after him a little bit in terms of game time.

Ryan Lonie
Lones played back. He had 20 possessions playing in the backline, so he’s in reasonable touch. His man would have kicked a couple of goals on him though. I reckon I’ve got to get Lones up the ground a bit, get him running, grunting a bit more through the middle of the ground. He’s actually looking ok down back. But we need him to be breaking the lines and kicking goals.

Brent Macaffer
Brent showed some things, he took five marks, including a couple of really good contested marks and played a little bit more up the ground. He did a couple of really good chases and tackles, and that’s what we’ve been trying to add to his game, but he just needs to do a bit more. He’s got something to build on, though.

Daniel Nicholls
Danny Nicholls was very good, especially on the offensive side of his game. He had 24 possessions, so we’ve been trying to get him to build up above what he’s been averaging, around the 18 or 19 mark. He worked a little bit smarter and a bit harder. Probably just defensively it was a good experience for him, because he played on Shannon Byrnes, and Byrnes had a pretty good day, so to play on a good player, who was up and about, and to still stay in the game and not drop his bundle, it was one of those development type things that I stuck with him. He got a lot out of it. It was a good learning curve for him and a good step forward.

Danny Stanley
Danny was solid again, 17 possessions in the backline. He looks in pretty good touch. I just had a little bit of a go at him because he’s been taking some really good marks, but on the weekend he took a couple but he dropped a couple, and the ones he dropped they cleared and had shots at goal. I don’t want to stop his natural flair, but he’s in really good touch and in a really good place at the moment, he’s very confident.

Alan Toovey
Toovs didn’t have a great day. He just looked totally out of rhythm, but he’d had three weeks off due to mid-season break in the seniors and a bye and being rested in the VFL, so he just looked out of whack and had 12 touches.

Overall, we'll be pretty keen to rebound strongly this Sunday against the Casey Scorpions at home. We had Sharrod Wellingham miss last week with a virus, but he should be fine for our next game.

See you at Burbank Oval.

Please find below photos from Sunday's game. All photos copyright John Anthony.