Collingwood defender Lynden Dunn says no one at the AFL club wants to punish Mason Cox for his round one AFL no-show.
Instead, Dunn says two-thirds of the Magpies should be looking themselves in the mirror after a 34-point defeat that has the underachieving powerhouse set to start another season behind the ledger.
Greater Western Sydney visit the MCG on Saturday, fresh from a destruction of Western Bulldogs in Canberra.
It's a difficult second-up assignment for Nathan Buckley's Magpies and one that Dunn said required improvement from more than half of Collingwood's round one team.
"We didn't have enough players that played their role which is a problem," he said.
"We may have had only six or seven players that ticked that.
"When you've got 22 players, that makes it difficult to win a game of footy.
"Our basics were off and that's a problem."
Nowhere was Collingwood's skill deficiency more obvious than in the air.
The Hawks had twice as many marks inside 50, with Cox the fall guy for the Magpies' failure to take flight.
The 211cm Texas-native didn't manage a single grab as the focal point of Collingwood's attack.
While Dunn agreed that the Magpies "aerial contests on the weekend let us down", he said Cox would get further chances to succeed.
"When he does mark the ball and get his hands on it in the air he's nearly unstoppable," Dunn said.
"He wasn't at his best on the weekend and dropped a few marks.
"We're not going to hang him on one performance.
"It's when it's four or five weeks in a row you start worrying about players.
"We've got full faith in Mason to bounce back."
Cox will miss round two after being suspended for a high elbow on Daniel Howe.
Alex Fasolo is a potential inclusion for round two after showing his recovery from a shoulder injury in the reserves.
Defender Josh Smith suffered a hamstring injury in the Hawthorn loss and Collingwood have confirmed he will be out for three matches.
Dunn said the first-up loss was not a dispiriting one for the Magpies, emphasising their ability to bounce back.
"The mood's fine," he said.
"Everyone wants to start well and there's a big emphasis on round one but it's only four points. The same four points as it is in round 13 and 21.
"Hawthorn, they just wanted the contest a little bit more.
"In the last quarter I think we kicked 2.7.
"If we kick 7.2 we're not even here talking about this."
Given 7.2 (44) is 25 points more than 2.7 (19), if the Magpies' fourth-quarter output was reversed, they would have run out nine-point losers.
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