Collingwood midfielder Adam Treloar denies he is playing with an injury, and instead just said he played very poorly against Essendon on Saturday.
Treloar collected just 21 disposals and went at 67% efficiency with ball in hand, and labelled his performance in his side's 37-point loss as "absolutely horrendous."
"There was no reason why I shouldn't have been playing yesterday," Treloar told Fox Footy's AFL Today on Sunday morning.
"I was fine when I was out there, I just played absolutely horrendously. It had nothing to do with my body.
"I'm as much as a culprit as any of us. It's not that we drop our heads, it's just there's a lot of times where (we make) a silly decision, skill execution won't go our way, we'll turn the ball over and then they go on and score โ and it's just deflating."
The loss sees Collingwood slip to 5-10 on the table, as their fourth loss in a row means they'll be in the bottom four after round 16 comes to a close.
With Nathan Buckley's future still dominating the headlines in the media on a weekly basis, Treloar was asked whether the players had lost a bit of hope, given Buckley used those words in his post-match press conference on Saturday.
"I wouldn't agree with that," Treloar responded.
"Based off yesterday's performance you'd almost say that because we were poor, but entirely, I don't think (we have lost hope) at all."
Like many of his current teammates, Treloar was quick to throw his support behind Buckley, given his coaching career is at the crossroads as he is out of contract at the end of the season.
"I absolutely adore him and I love him as my coach," Treloar said.
"I've got an amazing relationship with him. I am hoping he's here for a long time with me and the team.
"I suppose at the end of the season we'll find all that out.
"We come out there and the performance isn't there. It has nothing to do with the guys in the coaches' box, it has nothing to do with Bucks โ he's not the one out there playing, we're the ones playing."
