COLLINGWOOD played the best football of its season in its first-quarter thrashing of West Coast on Friday night, according to coach Nathan Buckley. 

But Buckley insists his side needs to step up another gear to compete in September action after sealing an elimination final in Melbourne. 

The Magpies had the game won by quarter-time against the Eagles, holding a 37-point lead after booting 8.3 (51) in the first term – their highest-scoring opening quarter of the season. 

They did not continue at the same rate, ending up winning by 62 points, but Buckley was pleased the damage was done early. 

"The first quarter is as good as footy we've played," Buckley said.

"[Our] contested ball, [we] defended really hard, put great pressure around the ball, and was able to take it inside 50 and be really damaging.

"That's as good as we've played in in all three phases."

It continued what Buckley described as the club's best form patch of the year, on the back of impressive wins over Essendon and the Sydney Swans, and a competitive showing against Hawthorn last week.

"Our most sustained, solid batch of football has been in the last month against pretty good opposition. We fell short against Hawthorn last week but I thought there was some areas in our control that we could do a lot better when we next play Hawthorn," Buckley said.

"There's no guarantees on that. We've got to keep winning if we want to meet them, and that's another thing in our control.

"We're playing decent footy, but we're going to need to improve and go up a couple of rungs, which we're more than capable of, if we want to do the damage we'd like to inflict in the next five weeks."

Collingwood is confident key midfielders Dayne Beams and Luke Ball will be available for next Sunday's clash with North Melbourne. 

Beams was a late withdrawal after pulling up with back tightness following training this week, while Ball was subbed off at half time with calf tightness.

Buckley said medical staff advised him Ball was fine, and part of his substitution was to bring veteran Alan Didak into the game.