Nathan Buckley's rebirth as a goalkicker speared Collingwood to a famous victory over its recent nemesis Brisbane in the round 10 AFL game at the MCG.

Down to 19 fit men before halftime and with only six majors on the board midway through the third quarter, the Magpies found themselves again under the Lions' spell.

But a blistering burst of five goals in nine minutes at the tailend of the quarter - three of them to Buckley - turned the game on its head and Collingwood stormed to an eighth win for the season, 16.13 (109) to 12.11 (83) before 54,820 fans.

Buckley's six goals was his best return from 263 AFL games and meant, even without the suspended Chris Tarrant, the Magpies posted three figures for the eighth time.

The win was only Collingwood's third over the Lions in their past 16 clashes - which include Brisbane's 202-03 grand final wins - and warded off the Lions' recent form resurgence which had stretched to three wins.

Jonathan Brown and a resurgent Jason Akermanis again had the Lions motoring into the third term and their run of six goals over the middle quarters looked to have broken the game apart after an early arm-wrestle.

But Alan Didak found Buckley on the lead at the 18-minute mark and the skipper's conversion was the first of 10 Collingwood goals in a quarter-and-a-half.

Scott Burns, Ben Johnson, Brodie Holland and Heath Shaw again gave Collingwood great run, while Brown recovered from a clash of heads with Magpie Nick Maxwell in the opening minutes to boot four goals.

Akermanis began in the back pocket on Leon Davis but starred after he was moved on to the ball after quarter-time, although the Lions could not match Collingwood's running power.

The Magpies ran themselves into the ground and was unable to use the bench much given Dane Swan and Maxwell suffered leg injuries and Blake Caracella was carried off after he was collected high.

Caracella had his head thrust back after Lion Tim Notting slid into him during the second quarter and the Magpie lay motionless for several minutes before he was carried off wearing a neck brace, although he did raise his head after several anxious minutes.

To make matters worse for the Lions, ruck Jamie Charman was reported for a front-on challenge on Anthony Rocca.

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, in his 700th overall game as a player or coach, was clearly ecstatic his side rallied in testing circumstances.

"(It was an) excellent win, absolutely terrific win, a very, very good win under the circumstances," he said.

"We'd lost out third player by the five-minute mark of the second quarter and under the circumstances I thought the players were just terrific.

"We've taken another step today... are we growing as a football team? Today I thought we grew a bit more."

Maxwell's injury was initially speculated as a broken leg, but Malthouse said he had suffered a corked calf and had been sent for X-rays.

Caracella was also sent for X-rays on his neck and head, while Swan suffered a hamstring injury, and Malthouse said there other Magpies played on sore.

But Malthouse would not be drawn on the significance of beating the Lions, as "revenge is a wasted emotion".

Lions coach Leigh Matthews was proud his younger players performed better after a disastrous first visit to Victoria this season, when thrashed by Geelong in round one.

But he conceded he lacked the depth of fit running players who could hurt sides.

"We were in the contest for a fair way but they overran us in the last quarter-and-a-bit even with the few injuries they had," Matthews said.

"They're a hard, fit team and we didn't have the running power to be able to play the match out strongly."

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