COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley says the Magpies need to address centre-bounce issues and turning the ball over in the backline after they lost a thriller against Fremantle on Saturday.

An efficient Collingwood led by three goals during the third term and remained in the contest throughout despite copping a thrashing in the centre clearance (21-6) and inside 50 (48-32) counts.

The Pies lost after Dockers youngster Ed Langdon kicked a goal after the final siren to seal a two-point win.

SUPERCOACH SCORES: BLUES v SAINTS, DOCKERS v PIES

“There was things to like and things to work on. Centre-bounce was clearly an issue and, although we weren’t scored against from it, it does out your back six under a fair bit of pressure having to redeem the ball and then move it forward,” Buckley said.

“And we gave up too many turnovers in our back half. So we were clearly scored against mostly from back-half turnovers and that’s been two weeks in a row now. So it’s something we’ve got to continue to work on to make sure that we’re not coughing the ball up to the opposition in areas that are pretty hard to defend.

media_camera Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury played his first game for the year against the Dockers. Picture: Getty

“We actually scored from over half our entries, we didn’t have that many. We looked pretty dangerous when we got in that front half.”

American Mason Cox’s performance was a positive, finishing with 3.2 from 11 disposals and five marks to outshine Darcy Moore (one goal) in attack.

“He responded well, Mason. He was off the pace early, the work rate wasn’t where we needed it to be,” Buckley said.

“But I thought that was a real step forward for him. To be able to respond to that and be a pretty significant forward target for our entries.

“He’s actually had a really strong pre-season. His marking’s strong. Even if he’s not marking them, he’s putting the defenders under a fair bit of pressure and he got some free kicks. That’s going to happen if you keep trying to win the ball at the highest point.

media_camera Brodie Grundy battled hard in the ruck against both Aaron Sandilands and Jon Griffin. Picture: Getty

“He’s still learning the game and there’s still massive areas of growth for him. If he continues to bring the right attitude he could still be anything for us. If he’s hitting the scoreboard and giving us a little bit in the ruck, then clearly he’s putting his best foot forward.”

Buckley said Jamie Elliott and Josh Smith might be ready to return to face Richmond in the side’s final JLT Community Series hitout on Saturday.

He conceded the clock was ticking for Daniel Wells, but said the veteran recruit still had “a little bit of work to do to get right to play”.

“We’re not doing him any favours if we push him out before he’s ready to go, whether it’s the body standing up to injury or whether it’s the workload and getting the right amount of kilometres in his legs to be ready to play the way he wants to play,” Buckley said.

“The clock’s ticking. We’re three weeks away from round one, but we also won’t be forcing him in before he’s ready.”

Originally published as Pies still with plenty to work on: Buckley