CTV > Scott Burns' Tuesday press conference

COLLINGWOOD captain Scott Burns believes coach Mick Malthouse was taken out of context when commenting about the Magpies not "being up to it" after the club's loss to Essendon on Saturday.

Burns, 33, said he knew "exactly where Mick was coming from" when he was seen to question his side's ability directly after the game, and clarified Malthouse was commenting solely on the most recent performance and not the season.

"On the weekend, that particular game, he said we weren't quite up to it which was pretty spot-on when you get beaten by 48 points," he said on Tuesday.

"I still think not enough respect has been given to North Melbourne the week previous, and we were a little bit down on the weekend but, having said that, I'm not going to be disrespectful to Essendon.

"There were a lot of things across the board that we could have done better in that game on the weekend that we didn't, and I thought Essendon really led the way. They were fantastic."

He also agreed too much was made of Collingwood's round nine demolition of Geelong, as the Cats had a decided off night and the Pies didn't play as well as they did in the finals last year.

"It's hard to get a real gauge but I think any game you play, if there's a 15-goal result, then one team hasn't quite been there," he said.

"A week after that game, no-one wanted to listen too much. They spoke about our tackling, but we were down in a lot of those areas compared to the preliminary final that we lost.

"So we didn't do things as well as we did six months earlier, but we won by nearly 15 goals."

Burns, in his first year as skipper following the retirement of Nathan Buckley, said he still believes the Magpies can recover from their slump and recapture the form they showed earlier in the year.

"I can only speak on behalf of myself, but I feel pretty confident still," he said.

"I know that when we play at our best and do everything that Mick and the coaching staff ask, we can play some pretty good football.

"Against North, it wasn't a flat spot. They just wouldn't let us do what we wanted to do and they played very good football.

"We were a little bit down on the weekend and we want to bounce back from that."

He said the Magpies will know what to expect when they meet Hawthorn on Friday night, but won't be dwelling on their 65-point loss when the two sides met in round seven.

"They belted us the first game," he said.

"Kick more goals would be handy. They've got some very good forwards down there, a very good backline, and their midfield is one of the better ones going around too.