CTV > Mick Malthouse's post match press conference
CTV > Nick Maxwell's post match interview

Nick Maxwell believes Collingwood needs a “100 per cent turnaround” in form if the club is to play finals in 2008.

Speaking to CTV in the rooms after the 48-point loss to Essendon at the MCG on Saturday afternoon, Maxwell offered a blunt assessment of where the side is at.

“Like last year, we’re going to have to fight like hell to maintain that spot, and unless we have a 100 per cent turnaround from that, we’re really going to struggle, we’ve got a bit of work to do,” Maxwell said.

“Obviously he (coach Mick Malthouse) is not real happy with how it all went down, as are the players, we’re bitterly disappointed, lost another opportunity to cement our spot in the eight.”

The 25-year-old deputy vice-captain battled hard in defence, and finished with 16 possessions including eight contested and four contested marks, but couldn’t pinpoint what’s gone wrong in the past fortnight with the Magpies having dropped consecutive matches to the Kangaroos and Bombers.

“I’m not sure if it’s just a flat spot amongst the whole group, but we’ve got to work it out pretty quick.

“Now we’ve got a six day turnaround before we play possibly the second contender to Geelong for the flag in Hawthorn, so we’ve got a couple of days to work out what we’re going to do, what went wrong and what’s changed since those few weeks ago, and hopefully we can knock it on the head pretty quickly.”

But there is still hope for Collingwood according to Maxwell.

“I think we proved last year that all we have to do is make the eight and we can give it a shake.

“If we can get back to playing the way we did against the likes of Sydney and Adelaide, then we should be able to give it a shake again, but having said that we’ve still got a lot of work to do in the next few weeks.”