Collingwood veteran Nick Maxwell has backed teammate Travis Cloke, saying a more aggressive attitude at training will turn around the key forward’s AFL form.

Cloke continues to struggle this season and he only kicked one goal in last weekend’s narrow win over West Coast.

But Maxwell said he had noticed Cloke training differently.

Collingwood play St Kilda on Friday night at Etihad Stadium.

“He’s a huge body, he’s hard to play on,”‘ Maxwell said.

“When he’s really aggressive and really physical he’s hard to beat.

“That’s something he’s gotten back to in the last couple of weeks and it’s going to turn for him come game day – hopefully it’s tomorrow night.

“But if it’s not it’s going to happen in the next few weeks, I have no doubt.”

Maxwell said Cloke’s teammates were making sure he did not lose focus or morale during his form slump.

“You could feel for him … he’s had the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Maxwell said.

“But we just keep telling him we don’t want him to come out and take 15-20 marks and kick five goals, we just want him to keep playing his role.

“I know everyone wants him to rip games apart like he has in the past and I reckon he will in the next few weeks.”

Aggression was certainly no issue for Maxwell during the West Coast game when he had his much-publicised incident with teammate Alex Fasolo.

Maxwell was unhappy with what Fasolo was doing and pushed him as he angrily reinforced his point.

Maxwell has no regrets about the incident, other than it has received a lot of media attention.

“At first he was like a little kid – he thought I was going to crack him over the head,” Maxwell said.

“Obviously the first thing I did at halftime was go to him and have more of a detailed explanation.

“He was great, he said ‘I want you to keep doing it and keep being hard on me’, because he understands it’s a niche of a role he can play for us.”

Maxwell, Fasolo and the other Collingwood defenders will have their hands full on Friday night with Saints captain Nick Riewoldt.

But Maxwell said double-teaming Riewoldt was not an option.

“These days you can’t really afford to have two guys playing on one forward, as good as he is, as much as they do go to him,” he said.

“Ball users around the midfield are just too good.

“So they can just cut you up and obviously use their extra player.”