COLLINGWOOD captain Nick Maxwell believes Cameron Wood is well placed to cover for lead ruckman Darren Jolly should he fail in his bid to regain full fitness for Saturday's grand final.

Wood, 24, has not played football at any level since the Pies' 96-point loss to Geelong in round 24 with the club's VFL team not making the finals this year.

Jolly is battling to prove his fitness after being slowed by a groin complaint in the preliminary final win against Hawthorn. Maxwell remains confident Jolly will take his place against the Cats, but said the Pies had every confidence in Wood's ability to take the lead role if required.
 
"Woody has been out there and training with Jolls for the last three weeks so we'd expect him to come in and he'll be fine should he be required," Maxwell said on Monday.

"We've got nine guys who have continued training with us. All of those guys have trained three times harder than the guys who are playing.

"They just come in and play their role. It may not come to that, but if it does, we've got confidence in him."

Onballer Dane Swan echoed those sentiments, but admitted there were inevitable differences between the two ruckmen. 

"Our structures aren't any different, [but] Jolls has clearly had six or seven more years in the system so his body strength against Brad Ottens and Trent West who are pretty big boys will be massive for us if he can get up," Swan said.

"If Woody plays we support him and we think he can do a very good job. He jumps a bit higher than Jolls so there's one advantage to having Woody, but things won't change whether it's Woody or Jolls."

Maxwell is still sporting a supportive brace for the thumb he broke against St Kilda in round 21 and he copped a heavy bump in last week's preliminary final win against Hawthorn, but declared himself a certain starter.

Ben Reid is the other main injury concern and while the Pies would clearly prefer they played, Maxwell backed the pair to take their leads from Simon Prestigiacomo, who voluntarily withdrew from last year's grand final team because he felt he wasn't 100 per cent fit. 

"I'd expect they'd do that [too]," he said.

"Obviously it's a tough call and it's tough position [to be in]. You don't know yourself how you'd handle being in that position. We know how selfless Presti was and it was a great example for our football club.

"I think if either of those guys aren't right I'm sure they'll step down, but I don't think it will get to that stage."

Mick Malthouse has confirmed Saturday will be his final match as an AFL coach and while Maxwell agreed he was, and will always be, a revered figure at the club, he said it will count for nothing when the ball is bounced at the MCG.

"It probably means a lot more now to the players to know that this is his game," he said.

"[But] in terms of taking that emotion into the game I think come Saturday you don't need any more motivation than playing in a grand final."