WHEN Nathan Buckley departed Collingwood on his threadbare hamstrings, he bequeathed his crown not to his captaincy successor Scott Burns, but to the kid with the scarecrow hair, Dale Thomas.

Thomas is the star at Collingwood now, perhaps in a way that Buckley was not. Buckley was a high pants wearer, earnest and true. He was professional and brilliant, arguably the greatest at the club since Bob Rose, but he was not flamboyant. He did not do the sorts of things Thomas does which makes him the irresistible force at the Pies.

Alan Didak is loved and Travis Cloke is arguably now, with Heath Shaw and Dane Swan, the most crucial of players, but Thomas is the man to turn games and heads.

When the Magpies searched for avenues forward without Anthony Rocca, Sean Rusling and Ben Reid, they shuffled positions and plopped a second-gamer who is making a name as a defender — Jack Anthony — into the goal square. But it was Thomas they really looked to.

His game was a microcosm of Collingwood's best and worst. Indeed the game's best and worst. But when it mattered, Thomas was the man you came to see. He was ultimately shut down, but he had set up the game by then.

For the first quarter and a half neither side could kick. Not just a goal, but the field kicking too was abysmal. In the first quarter Collingwood had 14 ineffective kicks and Sydney 12. Collingwood finished the quarter with 1.5 when it should reasonably have expected to have kicked the reverse of that, and been a good margin ahead. When the polished Didak is squirting kicks off the side of his boot, it is a cancerous infection.

Thomas' first shot at goal went out on the full. Minutes later he sprung from Martin Mattner's back in the goal square and converted. Like Brett Burton, these are the marks he takes weekly, but in no way does that make them less exciting. A moment later he ran down Tadhg Kennelly to draw a free kick, but that shot from 45 out faded wide.

Tarkyn Lockyer, who booted three behinds last match, spliced in with two misses from places he would routinely convert. Lockyer is a technically clean and reliable kick but he patently is suffering the yips.

At the start of the second term the messiness continued and Thomas collected the full house of goal-attacking options when his shot from 45 fell short. Moments later he had another chance, and it is perhaps a sign of the type of character he is that he was unfazed about having another attempt. This time he was from a more regulation distance and angle, and he converted.

He had another miss soon after from 45, but when Collingwood gathered together its game and found the goals it was Thomas who was in the middle. First came Cloke, then Thomas did his jack-in-the-box thing in the goal square again before Cloke kicked his second. Where both sides had managed just three goals in 45 minutes, suddenly Collingwood had three in three minutes and the game was split open.

Four opponents were tried on Thomas — Martin Mattner first, then Kennelly briefly, then Paul Bevan before finally Craig Bolton quietened him. By that time the game had slipped away.

Sydney was strangled at the other end by its own sloppiness and lack of adventure. The Swans were also subject to another Barry Hall moment of stupidity, taking a swing at Shane Wakelin. If he made contact it was a glancing blow, but that is barely the point for a player sent to anger management and consulting the club psychiatrist about his absent fuse.

There were few Swans playing well but the best of them was the Swan in black and white by the name of Dane. Like the rest of his side, Swan's first two kicks were horrors, but he recovered.

The sloppiness early could be explained perhaps by dewiness and a hesitancy of approach by two sides feeling their way with their preferred structures unsettled. It is perhaps a kind justification for what transpired. Collingwood was searching for a second key-forward foil to Cloke. Sydney was contemplating a game without Adam Goodes for the first time in Paul Roos' tenure.

What eventuated was that in their search for answers they discovered that normalcy was uncovered — Collingwood won its fifth match in a row against Sydney.

FAST FOOTY

COLLINGWOOD

1.5 5.7 8.12 11.13 (79)

SYDNEY

1.3 1.5 2.7 6.14 (50)

GOALS

Collingwood:

Thomas 3, Cloke 3, Medhurst 2, Wood, Anthony, Didak.

Sydney: Bird, Moore, O'Loughlin, Hall, O'Keefe, Playfair.

BEST

Collingwood: Cloke, Swan, Thomas, Wakelin, H Shaw, O'Bree.

Sydney: Bird, Barry, Kirk, McVeigh, Jolly, J Bolton.

INJURIES

Wellingham (groin) replaced in selected side by Anthony.

Collingwood:

UMPIRES

Vozzo, Kennedy, Meredith.

CROWD

59,202 at ANZ Stadium.

TALKING POINT

Did Barry Hall have another brain fade? Shane Wakelin certainly went down after Hall appeared to swing a fist at him and seemed to make contact. It did no damage but that it could be argued was just lucky for Hall — and Wakelin.

THE UPSHOT

The Magpies keep their top-four hopes alive, and simultaneously stave off any pressure they had brought on themselves of slipping from the eight after the Bulldogs and Carlton losses. By upending the Swans it is that position they can now challenge for. With a game against Adelaide next week and Sydney playing Hawthorn next week, the top-four picture may be even clearer.

HOT AND COLD

Dale Thomas was both hot and cold in the one game. He was the man to ignite the match and the Magpies when it was mired in scrappy, sloppy football and a frustrating inability for either side to score. He was then shut down in the second half of the game. John Anthony was brought into the side late for Sharrod Wellingham, who was said to have a minor groin problem. Anthony played full-forward and performed well.