COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse says his side didn't work hard enough offensively against the Saints last week, and will have to rectify that problem against the Crows on Saturday night if they are to win.

The Magpies kept the Saints to just 12 goals, but only kicked seven themselves.

But Malthouse defended the forwards, saying the ball had to get to them in order for them to be able to score.

"I didn't think we worked hard enough offensively," Malthouse said from the Lexus Centre on Friday.

"We worked well defensively, but we need to be able to get the skis on occasionally and go the other way."

Malthouse stressed the importance of his side getting their hands on the ball around the ground.

Last week St Kilda had 439 disposals to Collingwood's 274.

"We just didn't get the football, and yet we had equal rights to it, because the stoppages prove we were round about 50-50," Malthouse said.

"Whether you say 'denied the ball', or our midfield players haven't had the same impact – you can look at it either way.

"Very few of our players have been tagged, so you can say that, technically, the side we've run into on any one of those days has been better at either the stoppages – I think St Kilda are number one in the competition or thereabouts, and the scoreline there was 4.3 to 3.2, so I wouldn't have thought we were comprehensively smashed there.

"I think it's more a case of our players have perhaps dropped off, and we need to now resurrect that."

Malthouse said the key for his young team was to use the ball efficiently.

"Very rarely do we get more kicks, more entrances, more marks, more frees – we tend not to be on the plus side," Malthouse said.

"You've just got to make things count, and also limit the opportunities for the opposition."