COLLINGWOOD forwards Mason Cox and Chris Mayne took another step towards a senior recall with impressive form in the VFL at the weekend, captain Scott Pendlebury says.

Cox booted six goals against Port Melbourne last Saturday at North Port Oval, while Mayne bagged five and Jarryd Blair also pushed his case for a recall.

Kicking goals has been a hard task for the Pies with leading goalkicker Jamie Elliott sidelined with a left ankle injury.

Tall forward Darcy Moore has booted just 18 goals from 13 games this season, with 10 of those coming in the last month.

Collingwood is ranked 13th for points scored and its season sits precariously at 5-8 after losing to Port Adelaide on Saturday.

"Both Mayney and Coxy have played three or four really good VFL games now, so they would have to be pushing to come back into the side. Blairy as well was really good again," Pendlebury said on Monday.

"The senior 22 that played on the weekend, we put ourselves under the pump with the performance that we delivered," Pendlebury said.

Sunday's game against Hawthorn will be the 250th of Pendlebury's glittering career. Drafted with the fifth overall pick in the 2005 NAB AFL Draft, he has won five best and fairests, a Norm Smith Medal in 2010 and has held the captaincy since 2014 after taking over from Nick Maxwell.

Durability has been one of the 29-year-old's key traits. The left-footer has played at least 21 games in every season since 2007.

He managed only nine matches in his first year with glandular fever forcing him to miss three months of pre-season and the early part of that campaign.

"That's probably the biggest setback I've had so far in my career. Ever since then, touch wood, I've been pretty lucky," Pendlebury said.

"It sounds funny but I've only broken bones, not done soft tissues."

A welcome challenge has been fatherhood following the birth of his son Jax last month. Working his schedule around his first child during the bye weeks was one example.

"When you had the break and you needed to get a bit of training done, you work it around how he's going. You might come in at 10 o'clock at night as opposed to lunch-time when you'd like to," Pendlebury said.