Collingwood's premiership captain Nick Maxwell admitted after Saturday's victory over St Kilda he had lied to his players in a bid to lift them after last week's draining draw.

Maxwell, who played a pivotal role with 20 disposals, said he was as exhausted as his teammates but he faked a fresh enthusiasm in a bid to re-energise the spent side.

"The first 48 hours (after the draw) I was just absolutely shot," Maxwell said.

"You could probably tell after the game I was shot but for me it was just about turning the group around and telling them exactly what we had to do.

"I was lying to them, basically, because I had nothing. Last week took so much out of me."

But the skipper said the team would be celebrating last week's drawn grand final as much as this weekend's drought-breaking flag.

"In the end what we will be doing forever on, we'll be celebrating last week because we ground out a draw last week which enabled us to do what we've been doing all year - and that was today," he said.

"We had a lot of guys down last week but there was a special effort that pulled us through and made sure we got to do it this week."

Maxwell said the win would take a long time to sink in but the victory had been the climax of years of strategy and work.

"It's going to take a long time I reckon, I'm just blown away.

"Trying to teach these guys the way we want to play, it hasn't just happened this year, it's taken a few years.

"It's a massive team effort, it's just guys on the whole list, a lot of guys who have come and gone before us, like Bucks (Nathan Buckley) and Jimmy Clement and Shane Wakelin," he said.

"And on top of that our coaching staff has been amazing.

"Obviously it was going to be hard to get us up from last week.

"Our blood pressure was through the roof, we didn't know what was going on but they got us back to where we needed to be and we made sure we got it done today."

Maxwell said every one of the younger members of the team had moved up a notch this season.

"Every one of them has been sensational, just the way they've caught on, just to play AFL footy let alone to want to be part of a premiership team.

"There's a myriad individual stories but I'm just so proud of them."

He said he was confident heading into the match despite the resistance St Kilda put up last week.

"I think they realised what it was all about, they saw what it was all about.

"I knew they couldn't play two bad games in a row and they didn't."

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