On Sunday, North Melbourne will face a Collingwood side that ranks in the top six both offensively and defensively in 2015.

The Magpies have a 5-3 record this season and are coming off a thumping 69-point victory on the Gold Coast. Offensively they are an extremely potent side from stoppages. Despite being only a middle of the road side in terms of total clearances, they have scored more points from their exits out of the middle than all but two sides.

A midfield quartet of Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan, Jack Crisp and Taylor Adams has done the majority of the heavy lifting in the injury-forced absences of Steele Sidebottom and Levi Greenwood.

However, where Collingwood has truly excelled is defending after it has turned the ball over. This isn’t to say the Magpies possess the ball better than the majority of clubs; in fact they’ve had more turnovers than the league average.

Herald Sun journalist Sam Edmund offered his take in a piece on the Magpies’ defence last month:

“If we’re talking about the five stages of grief, (Nathan) Buckley is well and truly at the acceptance stage. He knows his side is lousy by foot, but has seeming implemented a plan to cover for it,” Edmund said.

“The 2015 Magpies set up in a conservative fashion to execute a strategy that is all about defending the turnover.”

Not only is Collingwood the most efficient side in the competition at defending after turnovers, it also concedes the least points per game from those turnovers, an impressive effort.

It’s an area of the game that looms as crucial given North’s struggles in scoring from turnovers in the last fortnight.

Since obliterating Richmond with the majority of its score coming from the opposition’s turnovers, the Kangaroos have to work hard to score in the past fortnight.

Another area of the game which goes hand in hand with turnovers is being able to move the ball quickly and effectively from the back half of the ground. The majority of teams’ giveaways will occur in their defensive ends.

With this in mind, the Magpies are one of the best teams in the AFL at preventing their opposition from transferring a rebound 50 into an inside 50.

The sort of ball movement that Collingwood can prevent is often the backbone to a team posting a large score. If a side can move the ball freely from one end of the ground to the other, it’s a rare sight for them to walk away at the end of the day without the four premiership points.

Across the AFL, the league average for transition inside 50’s hover at just fewer than 25 per cent. Collingwood doesn’t come close to allowing that many, with it being a major backbone to its defensive efforts.

After posting their lowest score in almost two years, the Kangaroos will have to be ready to break the Magpies’ defensive structures down to bounce back and post their fifth win of the season.

All statistics courtesy of Champion Data