Nathan Buckley briefly mixed Jordan Roughead up with his cousin Jarryd, but there was no mistaking the Collingwood coach's delight at 'Roughy's' excellent AFL lockdown of Sydney superstar Lance Franklin.
Collingwood consolidated second spot on the AFL ladder at the SCG on Friday, with a gritty 80-73 victory, their seventh straight win.
Roughead spent most of the clash on Franklin, limiting him to six touches and two goals, the first coming early in the game, which was Buddy's first in five weeks after recovering from a hamstring injury.
Late in the game, he was switched on to a red-hot Sam Reid, who kicked an equal career best six goals, giving his original opponent Jeremy Howe a torrid night.
With Tom Langdon and Darcy Moore among Collingwood's list of injured players, Bulldogs 2016 premiership winner Roughead is proving a key defender.
'I thought Jarryd Roughead was ... Jordan Roughead ... it was only a matter of time, (before that happened)," Buckley joked after quickly correcting his error.
"I thought Roughy was really good. His job on Buddy initially and then had to flick him across to Sam Reid.
"He's just been first class, the jobs that he keeps doing, and keeps standing up so defensively. He's been huge."
Buckley wasn't sure about the extent of the knee injury suffered by the luckless Daniel Wells, who kicked a team-high three goals in his first senior game in almost a year before limping off in the third quarter
"We're hopeful, but if you don't finish a game it's not great for him we would have thought,'" Buckley said.
"He's worked really hard to give himself this opportunity and he took it, you can't ask for anymore, so we just need to see where the dust settles for him."
Ruckman Brodie Grundy was massive for the Magpies, piling up a career-best 64 hitouts to help Collingwood to a 69-27 advantage in that area.
"He's one of the elite players in the competition and we're glad he's wearing our colours," Buckley said.
The Pies won on Friday despite kicking just 5.10 in the first half and trailing by ten points in the final quarter.
"The players are the ones that believe that there's no challenge that's insurmountable or there's no challenge that we can't overcome if we're prepared to stick to our task,"' Buckley said.
Collingwood host Fremantle at the MCG next Saturday.
