Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse has refused to single out Alan Didak for his off-day against the Western Bulldogs, labelling some of the Magpies' decision-making in their AFL defeat as "bizarre".

The Pies' brilliant run of late season form ended in their final home-and-away match on Sunday with a 24-point loss to the Dogs at Etihad Stadium.

Collingwood's performance in their first defeat for three months featured uncharacteristic turnovers at vital times, including from the usually deadly accurate-by-foot Didak.

But Malthouse said Didak was by no means the only Magpie culpable - admitting he and his match committee had felt it virtually impossible to determine a standout Collingwood player.

"You'd be selective if you said it was just Alan Didak," Malthouse said.

"Alan Didak was one of many that chose wrong options.

"I didn't think it was possible to find our best player.

"I didn't think any of them played consistently enough through the game to warrant a best for Collingwood tag.

"The choice of delivery was quite frankly, bizarre in many respects."

While Malthouse admitted it was not the ideal way to go into their qualifying final against St Kilda at the MCG on Sunday, he said the Pies still had confidence in their ability to make a finals impact.

"I've still got an enormous amount of confidence in the group, and they do as well," Malthouse said.

"Was it a slap in the face? Yep. It's given a real touch-up to us to think `hang on, things were going okay, what do we need to do to enhance our prospects the following week?'.

"It's forced us to look deeper."

Malthouse said Collingwood had no concerns now they had to face flag favourites St Kilda rather than Geelong, who take on the Bulldogs in the other qualifying final.

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