Buckley said he believed captain Scott Pendlebury and fellow leaders such as Steele Sidebottom, Dayne Beams, Alan Toovey and Tyson Goldsack faced a significant “growth opportunity” starting this Saturday night against the Brisbane Lions.

Still smarting from the loss to West Coast that cost his team a spot in the top eight, Buckley admitted the five key leaders (who are aged between 23 and 27) and those of similar experience level had been tested “unlike ever before” in the past five weeks.

While they were not named by Buckley, 24-year-old defender Lachlan Keefe and 27-year-old star Travis Cloke are also members of the Pies' leadership group that was announced at the start of the year, as well as veterans Luke Ball and Clinton Young, and injured defender Nathan Brown and the retired Nick Maxwell.

Buckley said it would be how the group of emerging leaders lifted those below them in the run home that would determine whether ninth-placed Collingwood emerged with one of the two finals positions that five clubs are fighting for.

"The leaders have put the heat on themselves and on their teammates,” Buckley said.

“They’ve been involved at a Collingwood that hasn’t been in this position for their entire career, basically,” he said.

“Then we’ve got young guys in here that wouldn’t know either way.

“I think our list profile is younger than Brisbane’s even. Western Bulldogs, St Kilda, Gold Coast, GWS, they’ve got youth profiles as do we.

“But we’ve got an element of existing talent that are now being asked to take up more senior leadership roles with Luke Ball and Dane Swan being out for a couple of weeks, Nick Maxwell has retired, Nathan Brown has been out the whole year basically, and Ben Reid was out up until a few weeks ago.

“So we’ve got guys who have had to stand up and do it.”

Buckley highlighted the large group of under 50-game players the club had introduced in place of the injured stars this year, but added “the young leaders are the ones who are going to have to find another gear”.

“And it’s going to start Saturday night,” he said.

Buckley acknowledged that the Pies probably performed above expectations by turning into the second half of the season with an 8-3 win-loss record and had some good judges predicting they could hold onto a top four position.

They have since lost six of the past eight games, and been “barely competeive” in some losses, leaving the club needing to Brisbane, GWS and Hawthorn to give themselves the best chance to make September.

“Have a look at our list profile, look at a profile of our team over the course of the year, and some of the commentary that has taken place externally, and the expectations," Buckley said.

“I think we probably performed above expectations early days, which raises expectations again.

“Internally, we thought we were capable of that. We did it for half a season and we haven’t done it for the last nine games.”

In confirming that Brownlow medallist Dane Swan would return for the match against Brisbane at the MCG, Buckley said the star midfielder’s season provided an accurate snapshot of the whole team this year.

“By his own standards leading up to the beginning of this year, six or seven years of absolute elite consistency, and he’s had a poor year by his standards – both in terms of his body and his form,” he said.

“But the season is not over for him and the season is not over for us.”

Buckley admitted there was a whole range of problems that had added up to Collingwood losing four of the last five games, all against teams that are around the same position on the ladder: Gold Coast, Essendon, Adelaide and West Coast.

But ball movement has been one key issue, with the Pies having recorded the most "clanger" kicks of any team in the AFL and, since round 16, having the worst kicking efficiency differential of any team.