A MISSED opportunity is how young Magpie midfielder Scott Pendlebury sees Saturday night’s clash with West Coast in the wild west.

Collingwood led for a good part of the game but couldn’t resist the premiers in the last term, going down by 12 points at Subiaco Oval.

"It was a pretty solid contest all game," Pendlebury said. "All game it was just hard, one-on-one, tough football.

"It was a good game, really – we had our chances. Maybe it was the pressure, but I'm not really sure what was going on. Looking back at it now, if we had kicked those goals it probably would have been a different game.

"Basically (Mick said) we had our chances, and we should probably have come away with the four points. But we missed our chances and they were good enough to capitalise when they had their chance – that was the basic message."

For Pendlebury, Perth and Subiaco Oval was a new experience – but it was one he liked.

"I've never been over here to Perth, so I've never even seen the ground before. It's a really long ground, and there's a lot of space through the midfield so from that point of view, it's good. You can run hard - it's nice."

Despite 21 possessions and 10 marks, the 19-year-old wasn't too thrilled with his own game.

"I wasn't really happy – I missed an easy goal I should have kicked, and there were a few scrappy bits of play, but I'll just watch the tape and go over it with the coaches, and try and improve next week."