Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has called on his players to end the AFL club's identity crisis.
Are the Magpies the sort of side that climbed into the top four last month, smacking rivals at stoppages?
Or are they destined be on holiday in September, having been outworked by the likes of other finals aspirants like 10th-placed Adelaide.
The next six weeks - starting with Sunday's match against the Crows at the MCG - will decide.
"When you don't perform you ask questions of yourself and of your group," Buckley said on Tuesday, forecasting returns for Ben Reid and Jamie Elliott on the weekend.
"We haven't played our football often enough against any opposition for the last five weeks ... we've addressed that and taken lessons from it.
"(We need to be) bringing the heat and intensity we saw in the first six or seven rounds of our season."
Buckley noted the work rate he wanted had been there "in dribs and drabs since".
"But which one (side) are we? We've got to make that decision," he added.
"We're not putting a cap of what we're capable of, but at the same time it comes down to actions.
"Ultimately we'll get what we deserve and what we earn."
The Magpies have managed a single scrappy win over Carlton from their past five starts, having been knocked over by Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn, Gold Coast and Essendon.
Reid, who is yet to play an AFL match this season due to injury, and Elliott will tackle Adelaide provided they make it through training on Friday.
The pair will be handy inclusions for a team that kicked five goals in a last-start 64-point loss to Essendon.
But Buckley was far more worried about his side's output when the ball is in dispute.
"There's three phases of the game: offence, defence and contest. The one we haven't been getting right is contest, and that sets up the other two," he said.
"If you look at ... our contested possession differential ... we've gone from pretty well first in the comp early in the year to bottom four."
Dumped defender Lachie Keeffe could earn a recall, as Buckley ponders how best to handle the injury-enforced omissions of veterans Nick Maxwell and Dane Swan.
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