North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has defended Drew Petrie after the key forward was held goal-less in a 35-point loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

North’s acting captain has three goals to his name after five rounds in a slow start after his 48-goal haul in the 2013 AFL season.

Collingwood won the match 13.15 (93) to 8.10 (58) on Saturday and the Magpies also dominated the inside-50 tally 58 to 39.

Ruck/forward Daniel Currie booted one goal and could face the axe for Friday’s round-six clash with Fremantle in Perth, where Petrie is due to play his 250th game.

Scott said the Kangaroos couldn’t handle Collingwood’s defensive pressure and made poor decisions with the ball in hand.

Or no decisions at all.

“We just weren’t efficient going forward and Collingwood are a really good counter-attack team, and that was evident early in the game when they scored from our mistakes,” Scott said.

“We were reluctant to go forward and when we didn’t handle that pressure, we got scored against.

“We had players who had options going forward and we just held onto the footy and got tackled and then turned it over and got scored against going the other way.”

Petrie had 13 possessions and worked hard, Scott said.

“Drew Petrie took eight marks today and provided a contest, but he needed some help,” the coach said.

Third-gamer Currie, with six possessions and one goal, was subbed off before three-quarter time.

Scott says key forward Majak Daw is close to a senior recall after kicking five goals for Werribee in the VFL.

“Daniel Currie deserved his opportunity but there’s no doubt we need to look at how we change the set-up of our forward structure,” Scott said.