Collingwood cannot slip any lower than it has over the past three seasons and the club is confident it can springboard back up the ladder quickly, coach Nathan Buckley has declared.
The Magpies missed the finals for the third straight season, finishing in 12th position, but the their second half of the season – where they won five of the final 10 games – provides a platform to launch next year's finals assault from.
Collingwood's ability to play its brand of football in a narrow one-point loss to Hawthorn to close out of the season at the MCG on Sunday, underlines Buckley's optimism for the future.
However, Buckley did concede recently that he would probably lose his job if the team failed to make finals in 2017.
"The reality is that we've missed finals in '14, '15, '16 and we've bottomed out but we're on our way back up," Buckley said.
"We're not going back any further and we've been able to regenerate and get some really high-end talent and stock picks in different places as well.
"We've got some really good opportunities going forward if we make the most of what we've got."
Adding to Buckley's buoyant outlook is the fact the Magpies will get Matt Scharenberg, Jamie Elliott, Alex Fasolo, Taylor Adams and Jackson Ramsay back into the side after they all missed significant chunks of the year through injury.
Buckley revealed he would travel to the United States over the off-season to observe and gain knowledge from the practices of some of the best college football (gridiron) teams.
"I've organised to get across to the States. We need to continually find points of difference in the way we do things," Buckley said.
"Not all of them will be obvious but they come out in your win-loss and we'll go to the ends of the earth to make sure we're providing the best possible program for our players.
"Part of that is looking at best practice around the world."
There is bound to be plenty of change to the club's list management and coaching team, with reports Graeme 'Gubby' Allan is set be the club's new head of football replacing Neil Balme.
That leaves the future of Balme, who may take on a director of coaching role, up in the air as rival clubs circle his services.
It has also been mooted former Adelaide coach and AFL Academy mentor Brenton Sanderson will join forces with close friend Buckley and sign on as an assistant coach.
Magpies assistants Ben Hart and Steve Grace are no certainties to retain their positions at the club.
"I can't confirm it (the Allan appointment) but we believe we're doing a fair bit right and that will come to fruition in time," Buckley said.
"There's strengths in our program now that aren't immediately evident externally, but we know they are important to us, so we won't be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
"But we need to keep looking for areas of improvement. Even if you had 100 per cent personnel, in coaches, players and administrators, role over into the next season there would still be change.
"That's what those decisions are going to be based on."
