MORE often than not, pre-season form proves to be fool's gold. In 2005, Carlton won the pre-season competition, rewarded Denis Pagan with a three-year contract extension, and went on to win consecutive wooden spoons.

Far from being a reliable form guide for the season proper, the NAB Cup has become the competition laboratory, as the AFL tests novel rules, clubs trial youngsters and give assistant coaches the reins, and players try more positions than the Kama Sutra.

On occasion, a club will use the pre-season to roadtest a different game plan. Saturday night's first NAB Cup game was one such occasion, as Collingwood showcased a style that has not been seen in the nine years they have been directed by Michael Malthouse.

Throughout the Malthouse years, the Magpies have been a kicking team, stubbornly sticking to the conservative premise that the ball is safer to kick than handball. More than any other team, they are willing to hug the boundary as they move the ball from defence to protect against a turnover.

Last year, influenced by Geelong's run-and-carry style - itself a response to zone defences - 15 of the 16 clubs followed to the letter Ron Barassi's famed instruction to Carlton at half-time in the 1970 grand final: Handball, handball, handball.

All clubs bar one averaged fewer than 1.5 kicks for every handball last year. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that Collingwood, with an average of 213.5 kicks and 123.1 handballs per game (a ratio of more than 1.7 to 1), were playing an entirely different game to the rest of the competition.

The Pies were playing football, the rest handball.

On Saturday evening, as they demolished an inexperienced and understrength West Coast team that could neither kick nor handball accurately, the Magpies posted numbers that suggest that Malthouse, who is in the final year of his contract, might be bending to contemporary trends.

With 219 kicks, Collingwood had their standard number of disposals by foot. What was startling, however, was that the Pies handballed 191 times, for an un-Collingwood-like ratio of 1.14 kicks for every handball.

Alan Didak, who has the deadly foot skills to justify a Kevin Bartlett-like aversion to the hand pass, used his hands 12 times in 30 disposals, while Martin Clarke, the Irish super boot, had a modest five kicks and a whopping 13 handballs.

Given that they were belting the Eagles and could dispose the ball as they pleased, this was a definite sign of a new method of ball movement.

This sudden discovery of the handball was no accident. From what one can infer from the intelligence-gatherers and opposition analysts at rival clubs, the Magpies have been using more "run and carry" and handball drills during the pre-season.

For Malthouse, this might represent a major concession. His philosophies - defence first, kick over handball, the boundary line is your 19th teammate - have been pretty successful over the journey, although they have not landed at flag at Collingwood.

What is unclear at this stage is whether Collingwood are merely trialling a new style, or introducing the new game plan.

This distinction is important because, as Malthouse well knows, in future teams won't have a single basic game plan, but will employ multiple styles, shifting gears from run-and-carry with handball to static tempo when circumstances suit.

Considering that the Pies were inept against Hawthorn's so-called "cluster" last year, it's now certain that, at the least, they'll flick the switch to handball when they face the new benchmark.

Meanwhile, Nick Maxwell faces possible video scrutiny from his first match as Collingwood skipper after West Coast player Patrick McGinnity had his jaw broken in a first-quarter shirtfront and spent the night in hospital, Mark Duffield reports.

Although initial replays of the incident suggested the bump was fair, the nature of the injury indicates high contact and could spell trouble for Maxwell. Eagles defender Eric Mackenzie is likely to miss several weeks after hurting his right shoulder.