The Pies need to beat the second-placed Hawks - and need Richmond to lose to the Sydney Swans on Saturday - to slide into eighth position.
Buckley said the Hawks had to be wary of not repeating Collingwood's mistake in 2011 when they were smashed by Geelong in the final round before losing to the Cats again in the Grand Final.
"I would suspect you want to win games of footy no matter when you play them," Buckley said on Wednesday.
"There's a competitive instinct in every person involved in the football environment and the guys at Hawthorn would be no different to us.
"The experience here was the last round of 2011 potentially where the foot was taken off the pedal a little bit and we never really recovered.
"I think 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 have 19 players on their injury list but Buckley said they would have "enough" to field a team against the Hawks, with Jamie Elliott and Heritier Lumumba chances to come in.
Both trained on Wednesday and a decision on their availability will be made based on how they cool down from the session.
He also said the backs-against-the-wall mentality was relevant this week given the depleted state of the list, but nothing could overshadow the goal of playing finals no matter who ran out for the match.
"We set an aim of playing finals at the beginning of the year and we've got the opportunity to do it, we're a couple of days away from having that chance," he said.
"We're still 100 per cent focused on that endeavour.
"Post-mortems and reviews will take place in their appropriate position but we're absolutely focused on performing in 48 hours time and giving ourselves the best chance to qualify."
Buckley said a decision was yet to be made on the future of veteran midfielder Luke Ball.
He said the two had agreed to sit down at the end of the season and discuss where his body was at and where the list was headed.
Buckley added the fact experienced tagger Brent Macaffer will miss a large part of next season with a knee injury will "be part of the conversation".
Macaffer and first-year defender Matthew Scharenberg will undergo reconstructions this week – the former's second after he had his left one rebuilt in 2012.
Scharenberg, who was drafted at No.6 last year, didn't play seniors this season with the Pies focused on getting his problematic feet right.
"[Macaffer] was shattered and disappointed and injuries are a part of the game – we all know that – but sometimes it just goes to some guys more than others," Buckley said.
"He's had a hard road. Obviously to do the other knee is a challenge for him.
"He's already amazingly looking for the positives.
"Matty (Scharenberg) has had a hard road. We've missed out on 12 months with the feet and did our best to get them up to speed and made real progress.
"You don't anticipate an ACL injury so that's another six, seven months of solid training for him and the fact we go through an off-season is a small return … in the bigger picture there's still great opportunity for him."
Buckley said there was no issue with Dane Swan being photographed with Toby Mitchell in the past few days, after the notorious bikie posted the snap online.
He said Swan had done everything right in notifying the club that Mitchell had asked for a photo when they dined in the same restaurant.
"Footballers have to get out in the general public every now and then, and you're going to run into people," Buckley said.
"He was on the front foot and notified the club straight away.
"He might have been caught up in a little bit of a game that's being played there."
The Magpies launched a new website, Collingwood Forever, on Wednesday at the Westpac Centre.
The site is the biggest online sporting club museum in the world and boasts an interactive and evolving archive of the history of the club and its players.
