WHEN COLLINGWOOD was thrashed by Geelong in round 24, coach Mick Malthouse spoke of the challenges he faced in keeping his players up for more than half of the season.

The Magpies had been travelling at full throttle since the second week of February. They had lost just two games since they played their first NAB Cup match on February 12, and had been at the top of the table for much of the season.

Against the Cats in that last week of the home-and-away season, the Pies had what Malthouse described as "a human reaction" to their long stretch at the top.

And when they weren't at their best in their first final against West Coast, and two weeks later against Hawthorn, it became clear they were paying the price for a long and arduous year.

Players such as Nick Maxwell, Darren Jolly, Chris Dawes, Alan Didak, Ben Johnson, Heath Shaw, Dale Thomas and Alan Toovey had unsettled seasons and didn't enter the finals with any continuity.

As the finals neared, up to six first-choice players bounced in and out of the line-up with injury or suspension.

It got to the point where Malthouse, after the Pies' hard-fought victory over West Coast in the first final, said every single player needed the weekend off.

"I personally reckon it was one of our gutsiest performances since I've been at the football club," he said.

"I say that on the back of six backline players. One of them has been relatively free of injury [Harry O'Brien], the others have either had an injury, been suspended or carrying an injury. That's five - and there was no [Ben] Reid.

"And [West Coast] have kicked nine goals. So I reckon that's an outstanding performance by those players. There were a lot of things we didn't do well, but we were good enough to get over the line.

"The longer the game goes on, the more fearful you become of players like Heath Shaw - eight weeks [out], Nick Maxwell four. We had a couple of blokes go in with injuries who were able to get through matches, but we weren't sure how far they'd get through this match.

"It's an outstanding performance by [sports science director] David Buttifant and Heath Shaw. On top of Maxwell, Toovey, Tarrant - who left the ground last week - the backline itself, anyone of them could have faltered."

That statement alone gives you an idea of the condition in which the Pies entered the finals series after a season during which they failed to get their 2010 premiership team together at all.

After Saturday's 38-point loss to Geelong, Malthouse was able to really assess the influence of the lack of stability for his players.

"We just couldn't get the group long enough to work long enough, to work consistently, and to take the load off one another," Malthouse said.

"It was thrust back on the same blokes."

Minor cracks started to show in the pre-season. Didak started on the back foot having had his torn pectoral operated on after the Grand Final replay, and Nathan Brown's season took its first of two major blows in February when he blew his knee at training.

But as the season started Luke Ball was in tip-top shape, having finally put his groin problems behind him and benefitted from Arizona training.

Dane Swan was on a high after jetting off to represent Australia in Ireland three weeks after the premiership in the International Rules Series, in which he won the Jim Stynes medal for the best player in the two Tests.

Alex Fasolo was drafted, Tom Young promoted to the primary list, Ben Sinclair was in year two, Lachlan Keeffe had been elevated to the senior group and Chris Tarrant and Andrew Krakouer had arrived at the club.

There was positivity, optimism and confidence when the season started on March 26 against Port Adelaide, without Maxwell, who suffered internal bleeding in the NAB Cup semi final against West Coast, and Leon Davis, who was ill.

Premiership player Brent Macaffer wore the first green vest for the Magpies, but he was yet to know his season would comprise just four senior games,  with an off-season groin injury and a foot problem picked up in round two destroying his year.

Maxwell and Davis returned in round three to face Carlton - and to see the premiership flag unfurled - but Jolly's problems were only just beginning.

Knee soreness kept him out of the round four 71-point win over Richmond, although he returned the following week along with luckless forward Brad Dick for the Anzac Day clash with Essendon, with Wood and Krakouer making way.

Jolly's left knee problem worsened, and he was booked in for an arthroscopic surgery in the days after the match.

He was initially expected to miss two weeks, but ended up missing seven, and travelled to Arizona in June with Swan - who had been carrying a sore leg - Macaffer and Brown. 

Johnson didn't play in the three-point loss to Geelong in round eight, the Pies' first defeat since round 22, 2010, because of back soreness and Maxwell was a late withdrawal with a calf.

Late in that match Toovey was carted from the field on a stretcher in a neck brace after bravely backing into a charging Tom Hawkins.

Chest bruising meant he missed the following week's stunning comeback against Adelaide that resulted in a 43-point win, while Leigh Brown and Dick were left out of the team.

As the four-man Arizona team prepared to leave, Thomas was suspended for one match and Dayne Beams succumbed to a broken foot that would keep him out for seven weeks.

Their omission saw Fasolo burst onto the scene, and the young gun picked up 15 touches and a goal on debut in the Pies' 88-point win over Melbourne on Queens Birthday.

Round 13 saw the players enjoy their second weekend off for the season, which gave Swan and Jolly the chance the enjoy the full benefits of altitude training with their trip ending early the next week.

The following Saturday night Swan returned to the side with Thomas to face the Sydney Swans at ANZ Stadium. That saw a six-point win, with team finally starting to come together. 

While Swan demonstrated the worth of the overseas venture immediately with 33 possessions, it was a bad night for Didak, who strained a calf and missed the next five games.

While Didak was out, the Pies lost one half of their two-tower forward structure when Dawes broke his knuckle against Hawthorn in round 15.

His missed seven weeks, with his absence opening the door for Lachlan Keeffe to join Fasolo and Rounds as debutants for 2011.

As Didak neared a return, Collingwood was dealt another blow on the eve of round 17 with the news that Shaw would miss two months of football for a breach of AFL rules on betting.

There was more to come: Jolly missed a game with illness, Toovey four with a broken hand, Wellingham five with groin problems, Davis two with hamstring soreness and then Maxwell two with a broken thumb.

When Maxwell, Davis and Shaw returned in time for the first final, after Malthouse debated whether the side could afford to bring in three defenders at once, Thomas was the only regular missing from the September line-up.

He came back in against Hawthorn, along with Reid, who missed the West Coast win with a sore groin, and Goldsack and Fasolo went out.

But there was one final twist to come. Beams pulled up sore from the thrilling three-point win over the Hawks, and ruled himself out of the Grand Final mid-week.

It gave Fasolo the chance to play on the biggest stage of all in just his 13th senior match - something that will help him immensely in 2012.

But at the end of the day, there were just too many Pies who missed too many games, and as Malthouse said, the season simply caught up with them at three-quarter time on October 1.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs