The mesh/netting for the winter period is really to keep the pigeons off as they will eat away at brassicas.
If they are small plants then I would put a net over them. Netting size - min of an inch square I would think would do the job. Just keep the net a good foot-1.5 feet away from the plants (more so at the side of them). It really depends what you have available.
Just be aware that if we got snow this winter, then the smaller the net size the more likely the snow is to bring the net down on top of the veg - then the pigeons will land on it.
The collars that you spoke about I assume are for cabbage root fly?
I tried them one year when we had the allotment but after that I never went back to them. I just planted the plantlet deeper than normal - buried half the first set of leaves on the stem and never had a problem with the fly.
However, I do appreciate that every location is different to pest pressures.