Nathan Buckley has applauded Travis Cloke for maintaining a positive attitude on Friday night despite an erratic goalkicking display that featured his best and worst in equal measure.

Cloke kicked five goals in Collingwood's 74-point win over St Kilda but missed a brace of seemingly easy shots to add four behinds to his bag.

Buckley said afterwards the forward, who has battled accuracy issues in the past, impressed with the way he didn't let his kicking form dictate the way he played out the game.

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"The most encouraging thing was he didn't drop his head at any stage," Buckley said.

"Technically, there's some things that 'Clokey' can go away and work on, but his effort was first class.

"At no stage did he allow the goalkicking issues to affect his contest or the way he played his role beyond it.

"I think there's times when that has been the case, so he'll get a big pat on the back from his coach for that."

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Dane Swan was back to his devastating best with 38 disposals and 15 of the Magpies' astounding 77 inside 50s.

Buckley said it was the most efficient he'd seen the Brownlow Medallist for some time.

"He's still building. I thought he was pretty clean tonight, probably as clean as he's been for awhile, he ran the game out as well as anyone," he said.

"He's a talented player and he's pretty hard on himself and he does draw a lot of focus, but it was a very solid game by him. I'm not surprised to see him do it."

Scott Pendlebury led from the front after a week where he managed an ankle injury that left him highly limited at training.

But Buckley was also pleased with the younger midfielders who have started to stand up in the absence of Steele Sidebottom, Taylor Adams and Levi Greenwood.

"I think ultimately our spread of contributors was the most encouraging thing," he said.

"The first 15 minutes we had very few who were playing the way we want to play but by the end of the game I think very few would have said they didn't contribute.

"Our midfield, clearly 'Swanny' and 'Pendles' needed to stand up and we thought Jack Crisp and Tim Broomhead, Tom Langdon off the wing at times and off half back, Adam Oxley, Jarryd Blair spent some time in the midfield as well.

"We needed to find those fresh legs through the mids and they were led well but we had an even spread."

Buckley said he backed Pendlebury, who had 30 touches despite the close attention of Mav Weller, to make the right call on his fitness.

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However, he admitted he was the type of player who was capable of contributing despite a physical limitation.

"There's some blokes that if they're 90 per cent fit you wouldn't support them, but there's some guys who are 75 and you would because they've got the capability and mentality to be able to handle it. 'Pendles' is one of those guys," he said.

Buckley said there was no injury issue with Nathan Brown, who was subbed out in the third quarter. The coach said Adams was expected to be available for the ANZAC Day clash with Essendon, but could find it hard to break in after such a strong team performance.