Collingwood have produced a terrific comeback to beat North Melbourne in Sunday’s AFL action.

Trailing by 39 points at half-time, the Pies came out after the interval with renewed vigour and they kicked nine goals to none to turn the match on its head.

The Pies eventually ran out 17-point victors 17.12 (112)  to 14.11 (95).

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The Magpies were woeful in the first half, managing only four goals, and were lucky to go into the long break only 39 points in arrears.

Livewire forward Jamie Elliott was the game-breaker for the Magpies, booting three third-quarter goals.

The Magpies’ ninth major of the third quarter came courtesy of a video review which deemed that Drew Petrie had been unable to get a hand on Alex Fasolo’s shot before it crossed the goal-line.

When Elliott booted his fourth of the day early in the last term to put the Magpies 20 points up it looked as though they would run away with the win.

But North hit back with the next four goals to regain the lead, only for the Magpies to make one more decisive surge with the last three goals of a see-sawing encounter.

Elliott finished with a game-high five goals for Collingwood.

The Kangaroos were best served by ruckman Todd Goldstein, while Robin Nahas and Jarrad Waite booted three goals apiece.

North suffered a big blow in the lead-up when skipper Andrew Swallow was forced to withdraw due to an ongoing thumb injury.

He was replaced by Kayne Turner.

In Perth, the West Coast Eagles brought up their sixth win in succession with a 56-point thumping of Geelong.

The Eagles’ wasteful kicking – they kicked 4.16 to half-time – kept the Cats in the contest, but they eventually powered away to win 16.24 (120) to 10.4 (64).

Josh Kennedy kicked six goals for the Eagles, while Andrew Gaff was busy with 32 disposals.

The Cats were well served by Tom Hawkins, who had the better of his duel with Will Schofield and finished with three goals.

Elsehwere, St Kilda withstood an early onslaught from a pint-sized Brisbane Lions outfit to post a comfortable 22-point victory at the Gabba on Sunday.

Down by 29 points at one stage in the opening term, the Saints recovered to kick nine of the next 11 goals and then held their nerve as the game went down to the wire in front of 16,898 fans.

Two goals in two minutes from Maverick Weller at the start of the final quarter gave St Kilda the breathing space they needed to claim the 16.12 (108) to 13.8 (86) result, with the fumbly Lions unable to mount a creditable comeback.

Skipper Nick Riewoldt kicked four goals and hauled in 10 marks in his return from a one-week concussion layoff, while midfielder David Armitage’s 31 touches and 11 clearances largely sparked the comeback.

Brisbane’s Ryan Lester also booted four goals and proved the unlikely answer to the question of who would fill the void up forward left by the injured Daniel McStay.

Beset by an horrendous injury crisis, the Lions were already running out of talls before the pre-match withdrawal of defender Darcy Gardiner (calf), which left them with surely one of the most vertically-challenged teams in recent memory.

They had just four genuine big men – ruckmen Stefan Martin and Matthew Leuenberger and key defenders Harris Andrews and Justin Clarke.

The scenario made it all the more puzzling that Brisbane struggled so badly at ground level, with the majority of St Kilda’s goals coming from zippy work at contests or sloppy Lions turnovers.

Martin was Brisbane’s best, collecting 25 possessions, 31 hitouts and seven clearances, shading Dayne Beams, who had a game-high 38 disposals and seven tackles.