COLLINGWOOD captain Nick Maxwell says he does not believe a team has ever deliberately lost an AFL match.

The issue of 'tanking' has become a hot topic in the wake of Dean Bailey's press conference after he was sacked as Melbourne coach.

Bailey said: "I had no hesitation at all in the first two years in ensuring the club was well placed for draft picks."

Although Maxwell acknowledges that teams often lose because they are trying to develop players for the future, he does not think that constitutes tanking.

"Personally, I don't think it exists because when you stick 22 players out there they've all got something to play for individually and as a team," he said on Thursday.

"You can't tell me at any stage that a player would be slowing down or not wanting to win because we're all competitive beasts by nature.

"You speak to any of our partners or any of our mates - we try to win everything that we do as footballers and that's what makes players as good as what they are their job.

"Everything they do, whether it's a little handball drill at training or trying to beat your opponent on game-day, we're out there to win."

Collingwood takes on bottom-placed Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night, and out-of-sorts half-forward Alan Didak is expected to be named in the Magpies' team when it is released on Thursday evening.

Didak's last AFL game was against the Sydney Swans at ANZ Stadium in round 14.

"I know that he's someone who's in our best 22 players and we want to get him in pretty quick," Maxwell said.

"He's trained all this week and all last week, so if he's not in this week it will be next week."