Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell says the Magpies will know a lot more about midfielder Luke Ball's fitness to play in Saturday's AFL grand final after Wednesday's training session.

Ball, affected by what the club says was a hamstring cramp in Friday night's preliminary final win over Geelong, joined in a light training run and beach recovery session on Tuesday.

Maxwell said the Magpies remained confident the former St Kilda recruit would be ready to face his old team on Saturday, but Wednesday's session would be a good gauge.

"You'll all be there tomorrow, you'll watch him train and you'll make your own judgments then," Maxwell told reporters.

"But nothing's changed from our (point of view) and we expect him to be fine.

"Tomorrow we'll know a lot more, we'll see if he can train, if he can train then obviously it puts it all to bed."

Maxwell also said the Magpies' match committee faced a tough decision on whether to recall veteran fullback Simon Prestigiacomo, after his recovery from a thigh injury which has kept him out since round 20.

The skipper will have some input, but not be part of the final decision.

Youngster Nathan Brown is the likely casualty if Prestigiacomo comes in.

"I'll probably have a chat to Mick and Scotty Watters, the backs coach, but in the end I don't get involved in match committee, that's up to the coaches to make that decision," Maxwell said.

"I'm glad I don't get involved in it because it's going to be a tough decision either way and I think there's probably three or four guys who could come into our team this week."

Maxwell said the team's spirits were unaffected by Dane Swan's failure to win the Brownlow Medal despite coming into Monday night's count as the short-priced favourite, with Carlton captain Chris Judd a surprise victor.

"It doesn't bother us at all, the one thing we don't want to do is take credit away from Chris Judd," he said.

"He's won a second Brownlow Medal, everyone knows he's a champion, I'd be really disappointed if people took that (kudos) away from him, because he's well deserving of it."

He said Swan reiterated on Tuesday that his only focus was to be part of a premiership side.

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