For Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell, the week off has its benefits but he's champing at the bit to play next week.

"For me, I'm just trying to get rid of the ghosts of the past," he said of his personal motivations for next week's preliminary final.

"I've been a part of two losing preliminary finals so I just can't wait to have another crack at it."

"You can't just roll up every year and think you're going to be in a preliminary final - it's a lot of hard work goes into it."

"We've been training since November. We've spent time overseas training. We've spent time on top of mountains with our drink bottles frozen over and not being able to drink out of them because it's been that cold."

"It's a lot that we've gone through as a group this year and it's good to get some reward to be able to have a real crack at it."

Collingwood is milking the week off for all that it's worth, nursing their handful of injured players through the week to ensure that they have a full contingent to pick from next week.

Maxwell said that the extra week off was a godsend for Simon Prestigiacomo (thigh) and Sharrod Wellingham (ankle), both of whom would have been in extreme doubt should the Pies have played this weekend.

"It's good to have that extra week for them. Presti trained on Wednesday which was great, and Sharrod's coming along really well so it's really a good thing for us in this situation."

"It gives us a chance to get guys right. It's still a week away and so much can happen in a week these days. Our medical staff have got a really good track record on getting guys up from simple injuries."

Maxwell said that he and several team-mates would watch Friday night's cut-throat final between Geelong and Fremantle, the winner of which plays the Pies in the preliminary final.

"Hopefully it keeps raining nice and hard and they have a nice, hard game," he said.