COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley admits the pressure is mounting on him to deliver sustained on-field success.

Now in his fifth season as the Magpies' senior coach, Buckley signed a one-year contract extension earlier this year, tying him to the club until the end of 2017.

Since their fourth-placed finish in 2012, the Pies have ended each season in a lower spot on the ladder and have not featured in finals since 2013.

Match preview: Western Bulldogs v Collingwood

Buckley said he was feeling the weight of his role but could not let the expectations overwhelm him and the club.

"Absolutely I feel pressure but I can't allow it to stress me because if it stresses me, it stresses the players (and) if it stresses the players, it stresses the club," Buckley told Fox Footy on Monday night.

"And if you introduce that to your preparation let alone your performance, you're not going to optimise it.

"There are things that … we've done well over the last couple of years that are coming through in our players and in our performances, but we're still not as consistent as we'd like to be."

Buckley's men slumped to their 11th defeat of the season with a 15-point loss to Richmond last Friday night.

The coach has repeatedly refused to blame his team's significant injury list for the underperforming 2016 campaign.

Buckley acknowledged there was still a mountain of work needed to close the gap between the Pies' best and worst performances, but said there were some positive signs regardless.

"Our best footy, even with that decimated list and players that we haven't had available, we've still played a brand of footy that's been able to beat some pretty good sides across the year," Buckley said.

"But we're not consistent enough yet and you can't be a good team until you're consistent, so we're still proving the ability to do that."