At halftime, Collinwood coach Nathan Buckley thought his AFL team couldn’t play any worse. He was wrong.

Buckley is alarmed at the Magpies’ capitulation in their 21-point loss to Adelaide on Thursday night.

Collingwood held a one-goal lead at halftime in the Adelaide Oval encounter but Buckley was already worried.

“We were a goal up but we thought we couldn’t play any worse. But we were wrong,” he said.

The Magpies managed just one goal in the second half as they slid to their third loss of the season.

“All credit to Adelaide for their effort to be able to maintain their level. But we just weren’t able to get the game on our terms at any stage,” Buckley said.

“That was due to their fantastic effort and the fact we were a little bit off. It takes two to tango.”

Buckley said not much pleased him in Collingwood’s performance.

“We had only just over 40 per cent of the time with the ball in our forward half which means that our defence is doing a power of work … they were unable to hold up,” he said.

“And our forwards weren’t effective enough.

“There wasn’t a lot that we can take out of it, other than when you don’t play the way you want to play, when you don’t put enough pressure on the opposition, you don’t win enough contested ball and clearances, you’re going to struggle to make headway.”