COLLINGWOOD is right on track for round one, stand-in coach Guy McKenna says, despite Saturday’s  NAB Challenge loss to West Coast in Albany.

The Magpies led at the half by four points, but when West Coast put the pedal down in the second half, the Pies couldn't stay with them, eventually losing by 33 points.

But McKenna said it was a better effort than in Dubai against Adelaide.

"We were still a bit scrappy, but that's the second week – it's probably a quarter improvement from last week against Adelaide, so we're up to half a game," he said.

"Next week we'll work on three quarters, and then the week after we'll work on four quarters, and with the week off, hopefully we're ready to go round one.

"There's areas we can certainly improve on, but if there's a positive out of last week into this week, it's we were more consistently offensively good, and defensively better, but only for a half, and we've got another half to go.

"But again, we're three or four weeks away from the start of the season, so it's pleasing."

Cameron Wood, who came to the club in the off-season from Brisbane in return for Ben Davies, and Paul Medhurst, who was part of the trade that saw Chris Tarrant go to Fremantle a year ago, came in for special mention.

"Paul Medhurst, into the midfield, didn't get clean ball, but he attracted the ball, got his hands on it, and his next step now is to become a midfielder like Dane Swan, where he can actually get clean hands and gets through and gets out of the traffic,” McKenna said.

“He's a very solid and confident person – we know he can play forward, but it just adds a string to his bow. If he's getting shut down defensively as a forward, well let's get him into the midfield and free him up.

"And Cam Wood too – he was very impressive, to go forward and take some catches, like Chris Bryan's done for us in the past. His fitness is improving, his strength's improving – coming out of the Brisbane ruck model, it's a bit different to the Collingwood one, so he's adjusting to that, but the good thing is we got him pretty raw, and he's a young kid, so he's certainly picking that up.

"Based on today's performance, I think the boys will certainly warm to him, because he got his hand to the ball against two finals-type ruckmen, so it was a good stepping stone for him today."