High-flying Collingwood defender Jeremy Howe believes the Magpies are carrying too many players each week which is hurting the club's chances of winning.
Collingwood lost to St Kilda on Sunday by 14 points, and have slumped to a 1-3 record, as a massive ANZAC Day clash with Essendon now awaits.
The Pies kicked 7.13 and butchered the ball around the ground at time as well, with their poor skills one of their biggest concerns going forward.
That's not the only problem according to Howe, who has called for his teammates to stop watching and start impacting the play for the entire match.
“We just can’t seem to kick straight at the moment,” Howe told AAP following Sunday's game.
“It’s not just that. Our effort fluctuated. As a team, we’ve got blokes that aren’t performing for four quarters.
“They might perform for two quarters and then die out of the game. We’ve got too many blokes like that at the moment and it’s costing us.”
It was the third quarter performance of St Kilda that won them the game, out-tackling Collingwood 22-13 and having double the amount of inside 50s.
Collingwood fought back late but it wasn't enough, as they fell to 13th on the AFL ladder through four rounds.
The Pies face an Essendon side that have lost their past two matches, and will be buoyed by the possible inclusion of new recruit Daniel Wells after he put in a strong performance for their VFL side over the weekend.
Howe hopes the blockbuster clash will get the best out of the Magpies, but admits they need to carry that consistency into every game, and not just the big ones.
“I think a lot of people are going to find it a lot easier to be up and about for Anzac Day,” he said.
“Just the whole atmosphere in general keeps you in the game consistently enough, but we can’t draw on big games just like that to be able to play our best footy.
“We’re not going to be playing in front of 90,000 every week so we’ll go back and have a look at a few things. There were some positives but it’s just our consistency at the moment, that’s killing us.”
