COLLINGWOOD's Sharrod Wellingam is adamant the club's midfield will function at its usual high efficiency against Hawthorn on Friday night, despite the departure of assistant coach Mark Neeld.
On Saturday, Neeld left his post as the Magpies' midfield coach to accept a three-year contract to coach Melbourne.
Neeld immediately severed ties with Collingwood - a mutual decision - despite the Pies closing in on a second consecutive premiership.
Friday night's preliminary final will be the first time this year that the Pies haven't had Neeld in their nest, but Wellingham says it will be business as usual for Collingwood's midfield.
"I don't think [the midfield dynamic has changed with Neeld leaving], he wasn't too much of a dictator … he was more of an overseer," said Wellingham, who has played 18 games this year.
"With the midfield maturity we've got, blokes like 'Swanny' [Dane Swan], 'Jolls' [Darren Jolly], 'Pendles' [Scott Pendlebury] and 'Daisy' [Dale Thomas] - they've been there so long that they know [what to do].
"We've got our KPIs that we set at the start of the year and we basically go through the year checking them off, make sure we're meeting them, and the things we aren't meeting we make a focus for the following week.
"We just stick to our structures. We think we will win if we meet our KPIs; that's something we're really confident about."
Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell agreed with his teammate, believing the club's midfield would function as usual without Neeld.
"We're rapt for 'Neeldy' for a start because we always knew coming in he was going to go on to bigger and better things, but I don't think it will have any impact," he said.
"From what I'm told, Luke Ball and 'Jolls' and 'Pendles' and 'Swanny' are the ones who basically run the midfield meetings, and 'Neeldy' was just sort of there as the back-up voice.
"I think we've got plenty of good assistant coaches in Nathan Buckley and Craig McRae and Tarkyn Lockyer and Anthony Rocca. They're all there to help out, and they can all step up obviously with the VFL team not playing."
Maxwell added that he expected Neeld to be a great success at Melbourne.
"I think the greatest strength of 'Neeldy' is [that] he's got it all - he can do all those things. He can pull you across one on one and say what he needs to say, and he manages really well," he said.
"He knows the right way to talk to different players.
"He's got that balance, and it probably comes from his school teaching background where he had so many different kids and he was trying to get the best out of all of them. It's the same with football."
Wellingham, who missed five games with an injured groin late in the season, said he relished the chance for an extra week's break after the qualifying final win against West Coast two weeks ago.
"Personally, I love having the weekend off, having carried a niggling injury through the second half of the year. It's been really good to get a break whenever possible, so I'm very happy with the week off," he said.
"My body's feeling basically 100 per cent."
Niall Seewang is a sub editor for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter @NCWang
