A third hamstring injury this season to Collingwood swingman Darcy Moore will be investigated as the Magpies prepare for a blockbuster clash with Richmond next Saturday afternoon at the MCG.

Moore, 22, was pulled out of the side three minutes before the Pies ran out to face North Melbourne, with his team running rampant at the home of football to win by 66 points.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley told reporters post-game he "can't be sure" if it was the same hamstring that has previously cost Moore games this season, but was hopeful it wouldn't be a serious concern.

"We don't know if he's hurt his hammy. It was tight," Buckley said.

"Hopefully it's similar to Mason's last week, where we made a call not to play him because of some tightness in it.

"I can't be 100 per cent sure one way or another, so we're going to need to investigate that over the next 48 hours."

Darcy Moore after the game against North Melbourne with the man who replaced him in the team, Josh Daicos

Moore being left out left the Pies short down back, with his replacement Josh Daicos being unable to fill that role, so Jeremy Howe was given the job on Coleman Medal leader Ben Brown.

The Roo was kept to two goals.

"We had belief in Howey's ability to get the job done against Brown and trust in our forwards and mids to be able to put enough pressure on to give the guys back there the support that they needed to be able to bring the ball to ground often enough," Buckley said.

"(Majak) Daw, Brown and (Jack) Ziebell still had their moments and still had supply but 44 inside (50s) is a pretty good team defensive effort," Buckley said.

The temptation to move Brody Mihocek, who was drafted as a defender but has lined up forward for the Pies, was there.

"We could've put him down back to look at that insofar as the tall balance goes, but we've just loved his work in front of the ball," Buckley said.

"We know that option is there, to put him back when we need to."

Ahead of a game against the Tigers that could have top-two ramifications, Buckley saw what he wanted from his side.

"Today was as good a team performance as we've put in. I thought we were just really solid," Buckley said.

"We had a lot of contributors to the way we wanted to go about it, in all facets, and I thought it was a really mature, rounded performance from a group of blokes that wanted to respond from last week.

"We'll project forwards soon enough and we're coming up against the best team in the competition and the reigning premiers, so it'll be a good opportunity for us to test where we're at.

"If we continue to focus on how we play as a team, we're always pretty hard to beat."