COLLINGWOOD captain Nick Maxwell believes Friday night's 96-point loss to Geelong has not dented the team's confidence, and has instead sharpened its focus ahead of Saturday's qualifying final against West Coast.

Maxwell, who watched the Pies' second loss for the season from the stands as he sat out his third game since thumb surgery, said the team's long-term success this season went part of the way to explaining why the players fell away against the Cats. 

"You've got the remember we've known we were going to finish top four for weeks now, and for the last couple known we're going to play West Coast," he said.

"We didn't play our best in the same round last year and we lost to Hawthorn, and the week before that we played pretty poorly against Adelaide and just got over the line.

"At times, you have to forgive players for starting to look ahead because they know there's finals on the horizon, and that's why we play football.

"We would have preferred to have won and played better, but in the end we can't go back and change that now. Our focus is just on this week and what we have to do, and that's what we spoke about today."

Coach Mick Malthouse agreed there had been a "human reaction" from being "up" since the NAB Cup and throughout the season.

He also said the coaches wouldn't ignore the game and label it a mere aberration with their first final against the Eagles just five days away.

"Coaches have got to look at the game. You can't just dismiss it," he said.

"Player groups may not spend as much time on it, but we'll go through and a few of the more technical things dissect and see whether we're in the right positions and so forth.

"I think there's a lot of reasons why you could perhaps say we got beaten, but you've still got to analyse the game."

Maxwell is available to face the Eagles after getting through another training session on Monday morning, and is regaining confidence in the thumb he broke against St Kilda.

"I'm confident I'm right to go," he said.

"I went well last Friday [in an intra-club match] and felt good running around, and now it's just selection issues that Mick will have to deal with the match committee."

Jennifer Witham covers Collingwood news for the AFL website. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.