COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse says his side did not reach the lofty heights that it did against Geelong despite demolishing West Coast by 100 points.

After watching the Magpies extend their lead at every change on the back of 13 individual goal-kickers, the coach rated last week’s effort a better one.

“There’s no doubt we played better last week than we did this week,” he said.

“Right now, and thinking about last week, I thought we played better football last week.

“You can play well and win by a point or play poorly and win by five goals. It’s not the result, it’s more the way we played.”

Malthouse praised the efforts of a handful of players, including Alan Didak, who had 24 possessions and kicked three goals to be among the best in the one-side romp.

He also hinted Paul Medhurst, who kicked four of his five goals in the final term, would push into the midfield at times in the coming rounds.

“For all intents and purposes we wanted to bring him into the middle of the ground but we haven’t needed that yet, but, I dare say at round 10, we are getting to that point where he needs to get in there, for us and him,” he said.

After leading by 32 points at half time the Pies kicked 15 goals to three in the second half.

The Collingwood coach said he had concerns going in about the side’s ability to mentally back-up in the wake of last week’s heroics.

“Absolutely,” he said when asked if he was concerned about a let down.

“I don’t hide from the fact I am a worrier.

“Coming here I thought the players who you thought you wanted to have some urgency about them had the urgency.

“The captain (Scott Burns), O’Bree, Wakelin, Lockyer, and I’m talking about mostly senior players. It’s important that those players are always filtered into the club because they keep the urgency level higher.”

The coach said Anthony Rocca, who was a late withdrawal, should return to tackle Melbourne given the side has a nine-day break before returning to the MCG on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.