The Northern Blues have suffered their third loss of the season at the hands of arch-nemesis Collingwood, going down by 3 points at Preston City Oval on Saturday afternoon.

In a seesawing contest that saw both sides ride fluctuating periods of momentum, the Blues jumped out of the blocks through the boot of two-first quarter goals from Jeremy Laidler.

Tom Temay (two goals) proved his class in the muddy conditions with a classy, dribbled goal from the right forward pocket as the Blues went into the first change with a 7-point buffer.

Collingwood then rushed out of the blocks dominating contested possession and clearances kicking three unanswered goals.

But while Collingwood ended up winning the key areas of possession (349-311) and clearances (33-31), it was Laidler’s third goal that steadied the ship and saw Northern register 5 of the next 6 goals.

Quieter after half time, Laidler led the way up forward with 3.1 from eight mars.

Both sides traded leads throughout the third quarter, yet it was Collingwood who made the most of the 12 50m penalties awarded through the match, to take a seven-point lead into the final change.

Trailing by as much as 20 points at the ten-minute mark of the final term, the Blues rallied to pull ahead by 5 points off the back of two stunning goals from Frazer Dale.

But despite the proficiency off half back from Marcus Davies (19 disposals) and Andrew Collins (18 disposals), a last-minute goal from Pies’ big man Jarrod Witts saw Collingwood pull ahead to win their third match on trot.

Shaun Hampson was commendable with 36 hit outs in a workhorse effort against the ruck trio of Ben Hudson, Brodie Grundy and Witts.

Speaking to carltonfc.com.au post-match, Dale said that Northern Coach Luke Webster remained upbeat despite their third close loss of the season.

“It’s obviously a disappointing result not to get the win after fighting hard all day,” Dale said.

“The boys were a bit despondent in the rooms post-game.

“We probably had moments of trying to be too cute in the wet conditions, when we needed to keep things simple in the wet conditions.

“Luke (Webster) kept the message pretty positive (in the rooms post-game), just highlighting the areas of improvement and where we can get better against Geelong next week.”

Coach Webster pointed to Collingwood’s surge in the third quarter as a pivotal moment of the match.

“We probably gave up too many uncontested marks through the corridor and made it easy for them to get a roll on.

“They (Collingwood) are a hard-at-it team, which we saw as a great challenge because we pride ourselves on that sort of play.

“We’re doing a lot right and to fight all the way to death was a really positive result.”

The Northern Blues travel down the coast face 2012 Premiers Geelong at Kardina Park on Sunday afternoon.

NORTHERN BLUES     4.5       9.7       12.7                 17. 9. (111)

COLLINGWOOD           3.4       8.6       13.8               17. 12. (114)
 
GOALS: J. Laidler 3, M. Dorman 2, T. Lincoln 2, F. Dale 2, T. Wilson 2, T. Totevski 2, T. Temay 2, B. Bransgrove , N. Meese

BEST: Lambert, Lincoln, Davies, Wilson, Laidler, Duigan