Co-vice captain Taylor Adams praised head coach Craig McRae when he joined RSN Breakfast's Inner Sanctum on Wednesday.
"He has coached the last two games on the bench and one of his great strengths is his ability to allow his coaches to move the magnets," Adams said.
"He brings calmness, clarity and positive feedback.
"He's built a really strong connection with players that is based around attitude and effort... the players really like (his style).
"He doesn't show a whole lot of emotion which is really reassuring - he's pretty level."
On ANZAC Day Medal winner Jack Ginnivan, Adams said there was more to the 19-year-old than meets the eye.
"He actually lived with me when he first got to the footy club," he said.
"What you see isn't necessarily what you get with him.
"One thing that struck me is his knowledge of football and how much he loves it - he's a footy nuff.
"He trains really hard and clearly he has immense talent - he's so skilful, really clean, a beautiful kick.
"He had to work really hard on his athleticism and his ability to cover the ground.
"He has a lot of confidence but that's off the back of putting the work in."
"I'm all for guys bringing their own flair and personality," Adams said.
"We encourage all of our players to just be themselves, as long as they're putting the work in and their footy comes first."
In its three losses in rounds three, four and five, Collingwood was winning the stats without winning the four points - proof the effort and intent was never lacking.
"(On ANZAC Day) we probably played below the level we have come to expect in terms of effort and intensity around the ball," Adams said.
"We had patches where we were relatively good but I think in previous weeks you couldn't fault our effort.
"The reason we won on Monday was because we were just so clean going inside 50 and we were far more efficient.
"I expected our season would ebb and flow given the young group... the foundation of our game is based around effort and pressure and we really pride ourselves on that.
"Consistency in that will see us do pretty well in most games."
