WHICH is the real Collingwood team?

Is it the one that could only manage two goals in a mistake-ridden first half against Adelaide at Etihad Stadium on Sunday?

Or is it the free-wheeling, ultra-entertaining outfit that went on an 11-goal run in an incredible final quarter, turning what seemed like a certain loss into a 43-point win?

Magpies coach Mick Malthouse was mulling over those very questions as he digested the remarkable demolition of the Crows.

"What is the true Collingwood side?" he asked himself in his post-match media conference.

"Is it somewhere between the first and second half? I suspect it's probably in the middle of that, which is quite compact and quite good.

"Adelaide would probably be the same. Somewhere between the two halves would be their true form.

"But somehow football finds a way of surprising us all."

Collingwood was 31 points down late in the second quarter.

"We were just disorganised," was Malthouse's summation. "I don't know why, it's just hard to explain."

The Magpies narrowed the gap to 12 points at the final change, but Adelaide's lead blew out to 23 when it kicked two goals in the opening six minutes of the last term.

"Once they kick the second one then your back is totally to the wall," Malthouse said. "But I thought once we got the first one back … we were a chance.

"We turned something ordinary into something quite significant.

"[The players] showed an enormous amount of pride. I think good football sides must have that pride in performance.

"We were absolutely challenged today. This is not a 43-point victory. This is a get out of jail."

Malthouse admitted he was shocked that his team managed to boot 11 goals in the last 23 minutes of the contest.

"No-one expected to kick 11 goals," he said, before stating the turnaround was due to his players' hard work and not some magical on-off switch.

"It's not a matter of just clicking. It is the methodical way you go about it.

"You have to hunt harder, you have to tackle better, you have to present yourself in a better position, you have to outnumber your opponents, which we started to do.

"It wasn't one magical click of the fingers and then it happened."

The Collingwood coach defended his decision to start Nick Maxwell in the forward line.

Usually a fixture in the back half the Magpies' skipper, who missed the previous game against Geelong with a calf problem, had no influence on the match in the first half.

After being swapped with Chris Tarrant, who rose to the occasion by kicking two goals, Maxwell spent the rest of the game in defence, although he finished with only 13 possessions.

"He certainly rusty," Malthouse admitted. "He's been patchy because he's been in and out of the side through injury.

"We expect his best football to be played certainly in the next five or six weeks."

The other surprise of the day came before the game when Collingwood named star player Alan Didak as its substitute.

Didak picked up nine possessions and set up an Andrew Krakouer goal after he came on at the 30-minute mark of the third quarter.

"I don't think it's fair to judge him as the 22nd player," Malthouse said when asked if Didak was close to being dropped following his poor performance against the Cats a week earlier.

"It's not a sin to be in that position and it's not a penalty, it's simply a rule and you've got to abide by that rule."