Rarely has the cliche "bad kicking is bad football" held more relevance than Sydney's MCG butchery in the loss to Collingwood.

The Swans were left lamenting a succession of bad goal-kicking misses on Sunday as they went down to the Magpies by 29 points - 11.11 (77) to 6.12 (48) - in a grinding AFL clash.

It was Sydney's third-straight loss and leaves last year's grand finalists with a 3-5 record.

At one stage in the third quarter, the Swans were 1.7 from set shots - which included several sitters.

Leading by five points at the last change, Collingwood went up a gear in the final term with five goals to one.

But the result might have been different had the Swans made more of their chances through the middle of the game.

"Some pretty basic kicks - you just have to have the confidence to go back and put the ball over into Punt Rd," coach John Longmire said.

"It's as simple as that.

"It certainly made a difference when we didn't take those opportunities that we should have."

As with last week's one-point loss to GWS, Longmire could not fault his side's intent - but the execution was lacking.

"Generally, for three quarters, we were right in the hunt - we were right in where we wanted to be," he said.

"They got some easy goals in that last quarter.

"When you're playing good teams, away, you have to take your chances."

Longmire said the Swans were working on their forward line tactics at training.

He also noted that other than their 93-point loss to Geelong, they had blown two last-quarter leads this season.

"We just haven't quite been good enough for long enough," he said.