Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury says his team is aiming to use its impressive JLT Series win over the Western Bulldogs as a springboard into the home and away season.

The Magpies open their campaign against Hawthorn under lights at the MCG on Saturday, March 24, and a crowd of more than 60,000 is expected to turn out for the clash.

“The last game we played in the [JLT] Series was really positive,” Pendlebury told Collingwood Media during Thursday’s Captains’ Day media event at Etihad Stadium.

“We’ll head into round one against the Hawks ready to go.”

The Pies suffered nine consecutive losses to Hawthorn between 2012 and 2016, but they broke the drought with a miraculous come-from-behind win in round nine last year.

That night, Collingwood trailed by 34 points at half-time, before kicking nine goals to one in the second half and prevailing by 18 points.

“We played probably our best half of footy [for the season] against them,” Pendlebury said.

The two teams met again just six weeks later. This time, Nathan Buckley’s men led by two points at three-quarter time but ended up going down by 24.

“So they present a fairly big challenge, the Hawks, and we look forward to tackling that in round one,” Pendlebury added.

One of the talking points leading into round one is whether dashing defender Sam Murray will make his debut against the Hawks.

Pendlebury is among the many people who have been impressed by the 20-year-old’s first pre-season at the Holden Centre.

“He’s been really good,” Pendlebury said. “His locker’s next to mine and he keeps it nice and clean, so I don’t have to hassle him about that.

“He played a really good game of footy on the weekend, didn’t he, so I think he’s be excited by potentially the opportunity to play round one.”