NICK Duigan reckons the Blues were beaten by Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday, but not necessarily vanquished.

For reasonable chunks of the game, the Blues took it up to the Pies - as coach Brett Ratten forecast before the game.

So mirroring his coach, who was reasonably upbeat after the 19-point loss, Duigan chose to dwell on the positive aspects of the Saturday afternoon blockbuster, which was watched by almost 86,000 fans.

"We found some cracks in the Collingwood armour which was good to see," he said after the match.

"There were patches of the game we really controlled, which is really heartening.

"The only time they go on top us were the parts of the game where we fell away from the things we needed to stick to.

"Having said that, it was disappointing to lose because there were patches in the second quarter where we could have taken a bit more advantage of our dominance of the game and through the third as well."

Duigan has slotted into the Carlton backline in almost seamless fashion this year.

At 26 years of age, with a masters degree in psychology to his name, he speaks with the wisdom of a seasoned veteran and not a player who was the 70th player selected at last year’s NAB AFL National Draft.

"I think this club has gone beyond honourable losses, but at least we know we are chipping away at them and eventually, we’ll get them," he said.

Apart from two wins over the Sydney Swans, the Blues are yet to beat a side above them on the ladder.

"We’re not going to earn the respect of the other clubs until we beat those top sides, so honourable losses won’t get this club to where it wants to go," he said.

"It’s an improvement, but it’s not good enough, so we’re going to have to take a (big) scalp pretty soon."

With 12 possessions and three marks, Duigan rated his game as "just OK". He was matched with Steele Sidebottom for much of the afternoon, but because the Pies chose to play a conventional six-man arrangement in the forward line, he wasn’t in a position to get back as the third-man up and give some assistance to full-back Lachlan Henderson.

He was close by when Sidebottom kicked perhaps the goal of the match, a high floater towards the city end, which might have been planned as a centering kick, but which instead sailed through for a goal, and an important one at that because of the three-goal buffer it gave the Magpies in the third term.

"I’m not sure whether he was trying to kick it," said Duigan.

"I asked him about it afterwards but he didn’t know. He might have kicked it out of his backside."