The Kangaroos survived a huge scare to produce their best start to an AFL season in 26 years with a three-point win over Collingwood at the MCG.

Last-gasp set-shot misses by Chris Tarrant and Blake Caracella cost Collingwood victory and their painful defeat was compounded by the loss of acting captain Anthony Rocca to injury.

Tarrant had a set shot from 40 metres with less than a minute to play that would have put Collingwood two points up, but missed and the Roos held on to win 14.9 (93) to 13.12 (90).

Tarrant missed a much more difficult set shot from the boundary 22 minutes into the last quarter while two minutes later Caracella hit the post from a set shot he would normally easily convert.

The win left the Kangaroos undefeated after four rounds, the first time they had achieved that since 1979.

There were further headaches for Collingwood, which lost Rocca to what appeared either a torn calf or ruptured Achilles tendon in the second quarter.

Rocca was offering a lead when he pulled up shortly and was on crutches with his lower leg heavily iced and bandaged at halftime.

The loss of a leader, with Nathan Buckley already out injured, was untimely, particularly when Rocca was in hot early form, kicking three goals in the first quarter and taking a spectacular high mark.

Collingwood, buoyed by last week's 15-goal second half against Carlton, started the better and led by 19 points deep into the opening quarter with Anthony Rocca dominant up forward and Chad Morrison among the architects of the Pies dominance at stop plays.

But the re-introduction of Daniel Wells after some time on the Kangaroos bench was instrumental in the Roos kicking two goals just before the siren to cut the margin to five points in Collingwood's favour at the first change.

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