Accuracy the key for Pies against Tigers

The spotlight will be on Collingwood’s kicking for goal when they take on Richmond at the MCG, but the Pies maintain they haven’t hit the panic button after some costly performances in front of the big sticks.

Collingwood’s finals hopes were effectively ended last week when they went down to Sydney by 11 points despite having more scoring shots than the Swans.

The Pies’ season outlook would look significantly better if they had also made more of their chances in a similarly wasteful display in their round 14 loss to Hawthorn.

But forwards coach Steve Grace said the club has maintained faith in their approach to goal kicking.

“We leave no stone unturned,” Grace said.

“We’ve got a method that we’re working with and we certainly don’t take an ad hoc approach to it – we’re very methodical with how we go about it.

“Certainly against Hawthorn it was disappointing with a 2.9 third quarter – that cost us the game directly we feel.”

Grace said greater efficiency moving the ball inside 50 and contested marking inside the attacking arc had been a focus on the training track.

Nathan Buckley made just one change to last week’s team with young defender Brayden Maynard in for the suspended Nathan Brown.

Likewise, the finals-bound Tigers made just the one change, with Shane Edwards returning from injury at the expense of Matt Thomas.

After losing seven of their past eight games, the 11th-placed Pies need a monumental meltdown from all three teams ahead of them on the ladder to sneak into the eight.

Grace dismissed the notion that the Pies could possibly benefit from playing unencumbered by the weight of finals expectation.

“I think that’s a bit off the mark because our players regard themselves as being able to give effort every week,” he said.

“We know that sometimes that can wane because it is a game of attrition and the longer you go with young sides it is harder to replicate that (effort) from week to week.

“But our boys would certainly scoff at that.”

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