COLLINGWOOD defender Tarkyn Lockyer says the Magpies have no fear about having to travel interstate for the first week of the finals.

A flat Magpies line-up was out-run and out-worked by a revitalised Fremantle at Subiaco Oval on Friday night, going down by 24 points in a match coach Mick Malthouse described as “terrible”.

The loss ended any chance of Collingwood pinching fourth spot and a double-chance and could see them having to travel to either Adelaide or Sydney for next week’s sudden-death final.

Lockyer was at a loss to explain why the Magpies had suffered such a drop-off in intensity after three solid wins in recent weeks.

“Gee, where do you start? One side came to play and the other didn’t, unfortunately,” he said.

“The side that we put out there is a fairly young side so they’re generally quite enthusiastic and the young guys are always keen to play.

“We’ve been up for a few weeks now, we’ve had three pretty good wins in a row and then tonight I just think we looked pretty flat.

“Whether the guys were perhaps thinking about next week I’m not too sure but we obviously weren’t at our best.”

Lockyer said the loss had not shaken the Magpies’ belief in their ability to play a big part in September despite the prospect of a first-week interstate final.

“We generally travel pretty well,” he said.

“We beat Sydney up there earlier this year and we obviously beat Port Adelaide a couple weeks ago in Adelaide so we’ve got no fears about where we have to travel or whichever ground it may be.

“This week we’ll just get back to what makes us a good football side to start with. We need to get our intensity up and our one per-centers up and start forcing turnovers.

“It doesn’t matter who you’re going to play in a final, if you’re going to come out flat you’re dead in the water.

“So the enthusiasm is going to be up because you know you’re playing in finals footy and it’s going to be a cut-throat game. We know that if we don’t win the season’s over, so there’s a hell of a lot to play for.

“We’ll be working overtime on the track, we’ll pick the best side we’ve got available and then we’ll go in and have a real red-hot crack at it next week.”