Collingwood must "harden up" if it is to resurrect its season, coach Nathan Buckley says. 

The 14th-placed Magpies suffered their fourth loss in five games after losing to arch rival Carlton by 15 points at the MCG last Saturday, handing them their worst start to a season since 2005.

Buckley, who notches his 100th match in charge of the Magpies this Saturday night, said only hard work would get the Pies out of their current form slump.

"We need to harden up as a playing group, we need to harden up as a coaching group and we need to harden up as a club if we're going to get anything out of this year," Buckley told Fox Footy's AFL 360 on Monday night. 

"What I'm feeling is despite what the commentary is at the moment, we … have greater influence on our destiny than anything that anyone says, but we got to do it."

VIDEO: Watch Michael Christian and Jay Clark's analysis of the season so far on The Agenda.

Collingwood has used 36 players so far this season due to mounting injuries and players' individual form.

Aside from out-of-form forward Travis Cloke, the Magpies have 14 players on their injury list, headlined by the likes of Dane Swan (foot), Jamie Elliott (back) and Tyson Goldsack (thumb). 

While making no excuses, the Magpies' coach said he had full faith in his playing group despite the mounting injury toll, adding that he and his Pies would ultimately "welcome" being judged on their win-loss ratio.

"We've put our best 22 (players) out on the park every week," Buckley said when asked whether the Magpies were now considered a development team.

"We will judge ourselves on what we believe our best is with that group of players and when we hit it, you'll know about it and when we don't, you'll know about it because we think we can win with the group that we take the field with regardless of age or experience."

The Pies have won just four of their past 18 home and away matches, with wins only against Carlton (round 19, 2015), Geelong (round 22, 2015), Richmond (round two, 2016) and Essendon (round five, 2016).

Collingwood takes on the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Saturday night.