Lost amid the ooh-ing, aah-ing and general wonderment at Collingwood's season so far is their form in last quarters.

The Pies have simply thrown the switch to turbo at three-quarter-time as they have racked up 69.42 (456) in their 11 last quarters, against their opponents' 24.25 (169).  

They have lost just one of those 11 stanzas - and that was against Geelong in round eight (2.3 to 3.5) - but apart from that aberration, it has been one giant, black-and-white scoring spree.

Four times, the Pies have kicked more than eight goals - against the Western Bulldogs (8.3), Melbourne (8.5), Richmond (9.5) and Adelaide (11.3) - and only twice have they kicked fewer than five.  

Their average fourth-quarter total is 41.5 points, a score Ross Lyon and St Kilda might look at with some envy. At the other end, the Magpies have conceded just 15.4 points. In other words, they've outscored their opponents by 26 points on average in each last quarter.

So what's the secret? Was it a massive pre-season running around the Tan dozens of times, or is there really some long-term aerobic benefit to these high-altitude training camps in Arizona?

If the science can ever be proved about the advantages of high-altitude training - and at this stage there are almost as many sceptics as advocates - you can expect the AFL's other 16 clubs to soon be traipsing along to Flagstaff in Collingwood's footsteps and trying to cram into the cabins there.

The Magpies were the first club to embrace the idea of training at altitude and they began the experiment six summers ago, first in South Africa and more recently in Arizona. 

In layman's terms, the theory goes like this: the body responds to the changes in oxygen levels at high altitude by producing a greater red blood cell count. This enables the body to carry oxygen more efficiently and more quickly - and apparently helps with endurance performance when the athlete is back near sea level.

Conditioning coach David Buttifant has long been a disciple of this form of training, but it's fair to say not everyone at the club - from the board of directors down - were quite as enamoured with it. Not initially, anyway.  

But the team's form in recent times has quietened the sceptics, and even allowed Buttifant to take four players, including Dane Swan and Darren Jolly, to Arizona last week for a 12-day, mid-season spruce up.  

Magpies football operations chief, Geoff Walsh, was quoted in a recent Age article as saying: ''Your people in charge of your conditioning programs, they're like coaches. They have different bents to their philosophies ... without any fear of doubt I could say that altitude training is not something that everyone follows. There are other conditioning coaches in the AFL who aren't fussed about it.

''We'd like to attribute the fact our injury rate, the keeping of our players up, the way we finish games, are they definitive pointers? I don't know but they could be used if you are putting a case for altitude training.'' 

So the football world will watch with interest the development and progress of Swan, Jolly and co after their return to action in round 14 - and how they fare in final quarters.

Collingwood's last quarters in 2011:

Rd 12     8.5-53      (v Melb 1.0-6)
11           5.3-33      (v St K  1.2-8)
10           5.1-31      (v WC 3.1-19)
9             11.3-69    (v Adel 2.2-14)
8             2.3-15      (v Geel 3.5-23)
7             Bye
6             8.3-51      (v WB 1.5-11)
5             6.5-41      (v Ess 4.1-25)
4             9.5-59      (v Rich 2.2-14)
3             3.4-22      (v Carl 3.3-21)
2             6.5-41      (v NM 3.2-20)
1             6.5-41      (v Port 1.2-8)

TOTAL  69.42-456  (v 24.25-169)