COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley refused to point the finger at his opposite number after Monday's Queen's Birthday clash was marred by ultra-defensive tactics.
But Buckley acknowledged that a game finishing with a scoreline of eight goals to three, on a fine afternoon and in a year when crowds are down, was not great for the competition.
"It wasn't one that will be on Footy Flashbacks, I wouldn't have thought," he said. "Today was a contest, it was a grind. There wasn't a lot of offence.
"It was an arm-wrestle, and you're going to get some good games of footy in that regard, when the scoreboard's tight and potentially when there's more riding on it.
"That's going to be enough to keep the viewer interested. But today didn't reach any great heights.
"But there's still learning opportunities for us as a footy team."
Buckley was keen to stress that he and his fellow coaches do care about how the game looks and are not just obsessed with winning.
"That's what laws of the game (committee), or Kevin Bartlett, would have you believe: that the coaches are so biased that they only care about winning," he said.
"I'd like to think that we play a brand of footy, and we're working towards playing a brand of footy, that's really exciting in offence, really hard-nosed in contested ball and nearly impossible to penetrate defensively. And we're still building towards that.
"I do care about the aesthetic of the game. I care about the aesthetic of our game and we continue to look for the best of it."
Collingwood broke open the contest by kicking five goals to one after half-time, and Buckley was proud of the way his players stuck to their task and ran out 33-point winners.
He was pleased that they didn't become overly frustrated by Melbourne's Paul Roos-inspired high-possession gameplan, which featured numerous backwards and sideways kicks.
"We brought the right attitude and the right 'roll your sleeves up' mentality to do what we needed to do," Buckley said.
The Magpies restricted the Demons to 35 inside-50s, and Buckley was surprised that the Dees, who finished with their lowest score against Collingwood since 1960, didn't try harder to narrow the margin late in the game.
"I did have a thought that came about halfway through the last quarter, when they were starting to get to the point where they needed to score to get back into the game," Buckley explained.
"And it was only one moment, and I thought, 'Gee, they're still quite methodical and measured in their entry inside 50.'
"But I thought that we dealt with what we faced pretty well over the four quarters."
Buckley was full of praise for the way inexperienced defenders Jack Frost and Lachie Keefe were able to compete with Melbourne forwards Cameron Pedersen and James Frawley.
"To be able to lock down on those types, as the game wore on, was an important part of us being able to defend territory and now allow any more than 35 inside-50s," he said.
"The balance ended up working for us. It was going to be very hard for us to lose that game of footy, given the way that we were able to control territory and prevent inside-50s."
The Pies coach said that forward Jesse White, who was a late withdrawal, was replaced by young big man Brodie Grundy for two reasons.
"His finger injury wasn't insignificant," Buckley said. "And couple that with his wife having a baby during the week, and we just felt like there was enough information there that we were going to get a better effort from Brodie.
"We wanted to give Jesse the opportunity to heal, for one, and to enjoy his family time. The baby came home today."
