Mercurial Collingwood forward Alan Didak has won high praise from the club's coaching panel for his growing maturity and restraint in his dealings with serial pest Jake King in Saturday's big win over Richmond.

King harassed Didak relentlessly and was reported in the second quarter for a blow which appeared to knock the wind out of Didak for several minutes, and which sparked a good old-fashioned 'all-in'.

According to assistant coach Brad Scott, deputising for Mick Malthouse who travelled to Ballarat immediately after the match to attend to his mother who's unwell, there was a time when Didak would have blown his cool - but not today.

"Alan Didak took a massive step forward in his development today," said Scott.

"Everyone highlighted the fact that (Ben) McGlynn got under his skin against Hawthorn and we knew that Richmond would try to do the same to him again today and he responded brilliantly."

"We were rapt with his efforts both offensively, defensively and to hold his nerve under pressure."

"With the work that the coaches, particularly Mick put into him, we were expecting him to respond like he did today."

Scott said the broad spread of goalscorers - a total of 13 Magpies slotted at least one major - was one of the most pleasing aspects of the performance, while adding that he didn't believe the potential inclusion of Anthony Rocca into the setup over the coming weeks would necessarily upset the equilibrium.

"Anthony has got an opportunity at VFL level and we'll pick the side on its merits," said Scott.

"If he's fit and available and playing really good footy then we'll have a problem at match committee."

"The balance is working well at the moment but Anthony is a quality player and I know he still strikes fear into the opposition so if he's up and available and playing very good footy then he'll press his case and we'll have to make that call."

Scott nominated the handy percentage boost and an injury 'clean-slate' as other benefits to flow from what was a copybook performance.

"The boys followed the game plan through to the letter really apart from playing some pretty lairish football in the last 15 minutes of the game when you're close to 100 points up," he said.

"Subconsciously it's very difficult to keep the pressure up when you're that far in front but we were very pleased with the boys' efforts."