The ladder leaders welcomed back Maxwell in an 82-point win over Richmond on Saturday, and his return saw the club’s injury list reduced to just three players - Anthony Corrie, Brad Dick and Heath Shaw - who are all on the verge of returning.
Maxwell, who missed four matches with a calf injury, said the good form of Collingwood’s second-tier players and the efforts of those playing in the VFL would throw up some selection dilemmas for the side’s match committee.
“Everything’s going well and our depth is really good as well,” Maxwell told BigPond Sports Weekend on Sunday.
“We’ve still got a lot of guys playing in the VFL team, guys like (Josh) Fraser, (Paul) Medhurst and (Shane) O’Bree - guys who are really senior players - and we expect them to play well and put their hands up.
“That’s the really good thing, and then we’ve got Heath Shaw and Travis Cloke coming back next week.
“It’s a good problem to have and it’s something that we’ve really worked on, the management of our list and managing guys with injuries.”
Maxwell singled out unheralded trio Leigh Brown, Brent Macaffer and Jarryd Blair as players who had taken their opportunities and offered the side versatility and depth.
“When your team’s going really well and you’ve got so much depth… when you come in you’ve really got to take your chance otherwise someone else will come in and you’ll only get a couple of weeks,” Maxwell said.
The Magpies’ top-tier was also fantastic against Richmond, with midfielders Dane Swan (37 possessions and one goal), Scott Pendlebury (30 and one) and Alan Didak (28 and three) finding their best form.
Maxwell said the Pies were not relying on one star player to win matches and opposition sides were struggling to lock down on all of their potential game-breakers.
“The real value of our team at the moment is that we’ve got so many good players who are really even,” he said.
“Teams come up and they sort of say, ‘Who do we tag?’
“They talk about ‘Swanny’, they talk about ‘Dids’, Pendlebury, there’s so many guys there who can really play a role for us and be match winners.”
