Click here to watch CTV's The Weekend That Was with Blake Caracella

Despite going down to lowly Richmond by 20 points on Friday night, Collingwood offensive coach Blake Caracella believes the forward group can take heart from their efforts.

Forwards Dale Thomas, Leon Davis, Paul Medhurst and Anthony Rocca all worked hard during periods where little was going right for the Magpies, and helped keep the black and white within striking distance.

“We didn’t play too well on the weekend, outside of a few good patches during the game, but… offensively I thought we played quite well,” Caracella said on CTV’s weekly match review show The Weekend That Was at the Lexus Centre on Monday.

Medhurst and Rocca (three goals apiece), and Thomas and Davis (two goals each), all contributed at different times, often against the flow of play.

Unfortunately when the Magpies appeared to be gaining the ascendancy early in the second half, the side was unable to place scoreboard pressure on the Tigers, but Caracella noted the players have improved their goal kicking accuracy as the season has worn on.

“The third quarter we did have a lot of shots at goal. We kicked a few on the full, gettable goals, too, and that can hurt.

“We could’ve gone up by two or three goals, but unfortunately we were only up by about one, and they kicked the next four in the third quarter.”

“So, sometimes you get a little bit frustrated with not kicking the goals, but it’s something we’ve worked on all year and got better.”

Caracella singled out the performances of Davis, Thomas and Medhurst, highlighting Thomas' outstanding second term and his ability to have such an impact in only his second year of football, as well as the work he does off the ball which tends to go unnoticed.

“When the game’s there to be won, you can see he really grits his teeth and tries really hard, he was one of our better players," Caracella said of the 20-year-old from Drouin in country Victoria.

“Hopefully this week he can play four quarters. I know it’s probably a bit hard on the young kid, but he was fantastic for probably the whole game last week (against Carlton), but I guess one quarter (against Richmond), probably stands out because he got the ball ten times.

“A lot of the time you see him doing things when he doesn’t get the ball, which doesn’t quite catch the eyes of our supporters.”