CRAIG McRae conceded Collingwood is a "middle of the road" team following its four-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Saturday evening.

Despite a late press where the Magpies had 10 fourth-quarter scores, they were never able to hit the front to snatch a sixth win of the season.

BULLDOGS v MAGPIES Full match coverage and stats

"Yeah, we’re middle of the road. That's a reality." McRae said post-match.

It was in the middle where the Bulldogs got the early jump, recording 12 more clearances to three-quarter time, with first Marcus Bontempelli getting off the hook, then Ed Richards.

"Clearances were significant in the first half. Centre bounce gave a lot of territory against, and then we got that right in the last quarter which I think changed the game for us… (We) couldn't manage 'Bont' in major parts.

"Ed Allan went to Richards in the third and started to do a pretty good job on him, and then 'Bont' was out of control so we flipped that, and next thing Richards gets out of control," McRae explained.

"I thought our fundamentals were really off early. We were handballing at peoples' feet and a bit scratchy around that. It's hard to put a finger on that, 'Pendles' has played more games than anyone in the history of the game, (and he also) handballed at someone's feet, and you 'just happens sometimes'."

The side's capacity to challenge late in the piece was a pleasing sign for McRae, but also raised the question as to why that wasn't the style it brought from the opening siren.

"I said… in front of the boys, 'I hope you don't think we're trying to restrict you from playing this way, we want to play like that, let's go'," McRae said.

"Obviously within reason, you're playing some teams that want to have a bit of a shootout game, there's times where you say 'let's see if we can make a contest' and see if they want to play that, because we can play different modes and different gears, but again, maybe we might need to release the shackles a bit at times to allow them to play with a bit more freedom."

For Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge, there was simply a sense of relief when the ball stuck in Michael Sellwood's hands late in the game. It proved to be a match-saving mark from the 13 gamer, even if that wasn't the strategy that would have been coached.

"You're hoping for a big fist, to be honest, get the ball out of there, get it out of that danger zone, definitely out of range of the next kick being a scoring kick. But you're pretty happy and content with him coming down with the ball in his hands," Beveridge said.

More important was how the backline – largely undersized with Rory Lobb playing in the ruck – stood up to the late challenges from Collingwood.

In Tim English's return game, the coaching panel opted to manage his minutes, with Lobb reprising his shared ruck duties to allow English more time on the bench.

It was a strategy that not only allowed the Dogs to maintain some control in the middle for the better part of three quarters, but also press forward and stretch an undersized Collingwood defence.

"(The ruck), it's obviously a taxing role, it's niche, and yeah, (English) was only playing probably 18 minutes a quarter in the first half, and then we asked a bit more of him as the game went on," Beveridge said.

"We really like what 'Lobby' did there last week, he was against Max Gawn, we thought he did his best, he held his end up, and tonight (the Pies) were probably short a ruck. We thought the combination would work, and as you know, Lobby's been a threatening forward over his journey."

With Hawthorn on the horizon in round 13, the Dogs are hopeful that key defender Jedd Busslinger will be available following a shoulder injury to provide enough defensive coverage to allow the ruck combination to continue.