COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse has put the acid on key forward Anthony Rocca, while saying he expects ruckman Josh Fraser to face Geelong at the MCG tonight.

Rocca had just three kicks in last year's preliminary final loss to the Cats and after struggling in last week's match against St Kilda, will be desperate to turn around his form.

However, Rocca's recent performances against Geelong doesn't make for positive reading. In their round-15 clash last year, the 31-year-old finished with one goal from five kicks. A better return of four goals and seven marks in round eight, 2006, followed another forgettable day in round 15, 2004, when he kicked one goal and took just one mark.

"You need all players playing well against any of those top sides, as we proved (in round seven) against Hawthorn," Malthouse said.

"We didn't have too many play well against Hawthorn and they flogged us."

Malthouse said Rocca's likely match-up with Geelong full-back Matthew Scarlett was a chance for the Magpie veteran to test himself against the best in the competition.

"I'm sure Anthony will look back over his last couple of games and think, 'Well, what did I do wrong and what do I need to do?' So the challenge goes out to these individuals," he said.

"They can be coached and persuaded, but at the end of the day if a player is chosen you'd like to think it's up to the individual to change their fortunes."

Following last week's narrow win over St Kilda, Malthouse said he was pleased with the response of several players he asked to lift.

"I'd like to think it's a little bit more than a one-week jolt … it's more a case of consistency," he said.

"When you're four (wins) and four (losses), you're clearly not as consistent as you should be. We've been comprehensively beaten on two occasions and on two occasions we were in the game until the death — quite often that's a case of players just not dotting the i's and crossing the t's."

Fraser trained yesterday after missing last week with a knee injury and has been named in the team.

Malthouse admitted that the new interchange rules led to chaotic scenes on the Magpies bench last weekend.

"We had more blocks last week off the ground than we did on the ground … the eagerness of players to get on the ground sometimes has to be stifled and we've got to be smart about it," he said.

Malthouse added his voice to the calls for interchange to be controlled by a microchip, not a post-it note.

"If it's one on, one off, do we really care whether Didak's replaced Davis or Medhurst replaced Davis? It shouldn't really be a concern.

"I don't know what (the AFL) do with their slips of paper."

AAP