Nathan Buckley has served AFL premiership fancies a cautionary tale ahead of the last round of the season: don't lose that winning feeling.
The Collingwood coach drew on the club's disastrous final round of 2011, when the league leaders hosted second-placed Geelong for a Friday night blockbuster.
In front of 85,705 fans, Geelong handed out a 96-point belting of Collingwood, a loss Buckley said they never recovered from.
To say it came as a shock to the Mick Malthouse-coached Magpies would be putting it lightly.
Collingwood were fresh from an 80-point Subiaco demolition of Fremantle and sat two games clear on top of the ladder.
There was no mass resting of Collingwood's line-up, with Leon Davis, Dale Thomas and Tom Young making way for Luke Ball, Chris Tarrant and Sharrod Wellingham.
With Sydney, Geelong and Collingwood's Friday night opponents Hawthorn considering resting players for this weekend's games, Buckley's message was clear.
Don't rest your attitude, or risk losing it all.
"I would suspect that you want to win games of footy, no matter when you play them," he said.
"The guys at Hawthorn will be no different to us. They'll want to go out and win the game and I'm sure the guys at Sydney, who have put such a good win-loss together after a slow start, they'll want to maintain that.
"The last round of 2011, the foot was taken off the pedal a little bit and we never really recovered from that.
"There's a fair bit to lose if you don't play with that competitive instinct, and I fully expect Hawthorn to come with it."
The Magpies lost the 2011 grand final by 38 points, floundering in the final term as the Cats kicked five unanswered goals.
Collingwood are still a chance to play their part in this season's finals but their involvement depends on a win over the Hawks and other results.
While Buckley has 14 players ruled out to injury for the rest of the season, he maintains Collingwood can make it to September.
"We set an aim of playing finals at the end of the year and we've got the opportunity to do it," he said.
"We're still 100 per cent focused on that endeavour.
"We've got injuries as do a lot of other sides.
"But we've come off a strong second-half performance last week under duress.
"We take a fair bit of belief with that and need to bring that for four quarters against Hawthorn to be competitive."
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