The alarm bells are clanging at Collingwood ahead of two games that will reveal a great deal about their premiership credentials this season.

Coach Nathan Buckley has made a call to arms after last week’s loss to Fremantle left them with a 4-3 record.

They host unbeaten Geelong on Saturday night, followed by a Friday night blockbuster against AFL premiers Sydney, also at the MCG.

“We need all individuals committed and understanding the responsibility they have – having that discipline, having that work ethic consistently,” Buckley said.

“We’ve done a lot of soul-searching this week, not only the playing group.

“The coaches, the whole program, we need to do things better than we are doing them at the moment, as the ladder shows.”

Forward Alex Fasolo, their second-highest goalkicker last year, could miss the rest of the season with a foot injury and Buckley has made his displeasure clear about Heath Shaw’s one-match striking suspension.

One ray of sunshine is that midfield star Luke Ball will make his return from a knee reconstruction against the Cats.

Collingwood have had rotten luck with injuries this year and Buckley was asked whether his team remained in the premiership hunt.

“What it is, is a team trying to find its best and we still fully believe that our best is good enough to beat any other team,” he said.

“There seems to be a lot of interest in where we’re situated as a club at the moment.

“I will tell you where we are – we’re 4-3, we had a really poor loss against a really disciplined, committed side (Fremantle).

“We come in against an opponent that’s undefeated … and we clearly need to focus on our discipline and commitment over four quarters.”

One of the problems stemming from their injury plague has been a lack of on-field leadership at critical times.

Buckley says their inconsistency boiled down to six quarters of football over the first seven rounds.

Apart from Ball, captain Nick Maxwell has also been out of action for several matches and Dayne Beams remains a few weeks away from resuming.

“We’ve gone without … 75 per cent of our senior leadership group in two or three games this year,” Buckley said.

“We’ve asked other players to stand up into the breach and that takes time – they’re not exposed to it as much.

“But we need to develop that, it’s something we have identified.

“That’s a fairly strong indicator of consistent performance.”

Shaw’s suspension will also mean a further recast of their defence, in particular the all-important rebound off halfback.

Geelong’s main weapon is hurting the opposition with lightning-quick rebound out of defence.

“These guys haven’t played a lot of footy together as a back six,” Buckley said.

“So that’s going to be a challenge to build that in quick time.”