THE SKY is the limit for the Magpies this year as long as they avoid the big-moment fade-outs that cost them so dearly in 2017, midfielder Adam Treloar says.
Many pundits have already written off Collingwood after a pre-season in which veteran Tyson Goldsack went down with a season-long knee injury, match-winners Jamie Elliott and Daniel Wells have suffered interrupted preparations, and Jordan De Goey was suspended for a month for drink-driving before suffering a hamstring injury.
But the feeling within the club is that things aren't nearly as bad and Treloar believes the players have addressed the main reason they lost the majority of their 12 games last year, with a biggest losing margin of 37 points.
"Consistency was the thing that really cost us, standing up in big moments," Treloar said on Monday.
"We were in all of our games. We just consistently, in those big moments, failed."
Treloar said the Pies' stirring comeback against the Western Bulldogs earlier this month, albeit in a pre-season game was evidence there had been improvement on that front.
"If we can play the way we did against the Bulldogs and the good teams we went well against last year – Geelong and Richmond earlier in the year, and teams like which made finals … the belief that's in the group is enormous," he said.
"We focused on being a better defensive group because we want to limit them from scoring and score as much as we can. If we can do that and show everyone we can do that starting with Hawthorn this week, the sky's the limit for us and we can't wait to show everyone."
The Pies' last few seasons have been littered with early losses.
In 2017, they lost four of the first five games, and dropped three of their first four the previous year.
Treloar said Collingwood was aware of the significance of a performance that showed the wrongs of 2017 had been worked on.
"The last couple of years we haven't got off to a good start and it's really set our season up from there for being inconsistent," he said.
"We really just want to put into practice what we've trained over the pre-season, and if we can attack the season the way we played against the Bulldogs … that's the expectation and the standard we want to meet week in, week out.
"It's a great opportunity this week against a good opposition and in front of an awesome crowd as well."
Treloar missed the Pies' first JLT Community Series game against Greater Western Sydney after pulling up sore from the intraclub that led into it.
He said there was nothing significant that prompted him to have scans ahead of clash with the Giants.
"I'm feeling good, that was just a maintenance thing just to see where my body was at after a solid pre-season," he said.
"They're quite tough, and you try and get a few injuries here and there so you can dodge a bit of the running and whatnot.
"It's all good now, I'm looking forward to the game, and it was a good little hit-out last week against the Bulldogs and then an intraclub we had on Friday and now I'm raring to go."
