IT'S Wednesday, and Nick Maxwell is sitting in an office at the Lexus Centre, waiting to be interviewed. We enter the room, and he greets us with a warm smile … and a fibreglass cast covering half his right arm.

Clearly, we've stumbled on to a news story. Christ, what happened? "Broke my wrist," Maxwell says, casually. When? Training this morning? "No, three weeks ago."

Which sums up the Collingwood defender nicely. There's the quiet but steely determination to get his job done, whatever it takes. But, just as significantly, a resolve not to make a fuss about it.

Magpie skipper Scott Burns's strained calf has been the subject of more scrutiny the past couple of weeks than perhaps any muscle in the country. St Kilda midfielder Luke Ball's hamstring was on Thursday deemed worthy of TV news footage shot from a helicopter.

Maxwell's been playing the best part of a month with a broken trapezium bone, and no one outside the Lexus Centre has noticed. But he's not worried about any cover being blown. There wasn't any to begin with.

"No one outside the club knows I broke it, but there's no issue keeping it secret, because it hasn't changed anything I've done on the field or anything," he shrugs.

"It was against Sydney (in round 21). I just spoiled a ball across the boundary line and felt something go in my wrist. I had to wait a few minutes to come off till we could get someone back on my opponent, then I just snuck off, and found out it was broken.

"I wasn't going to play against Fremantle, but on the Wednesday I thought, 'Stuff that', so I came in here, saw the doctor, had a brace made up, strapped it up, took a couple of painkillers, and got through training OK."

The last home-and-away game was negotiated without incident, enough of a feat in itself. But last week, Maxwell played arguably the best match of his 94-game AFL career, in an unaccustomed midfield role, performing a superb "stopping" job on Adelaide key onballer Scott Thompson.

There's an obvious, and for Collingwood fans, very happy analogy building here. Think 1990, Darren Millane, and a broken thumb.

Maxwell is embarrassed at the comparison. But he's become well and truly used to that. That's what happens when you inherit the guernsey of arguably Collingwood's greatest ever player, Nathan Buckley.

The Magpies were going to retire the No. 5 last summer until Buckley approached Maxwell and asked him to take it over.

"My first instinct was to say, 'No', because I'll never have that sort of profile, but I thought about it more after he explained why he wanted me to wear it, and thought about my respect for him and the help he'd given me," he said.

"I suppose, also, if I didn't, it would have been thrust upon someone else, who it might have been a bigger issue with. People are never going to put a six-foot-four back-pocket player alongside the greatest onballer this club's ever had. I'm under no illusions about where I stand as a player."

Which has made it comparatively easy to withstand any barbs flung his way. Of which, from the Collingwood hordes, there have been plenty.

Give up a few goals, turn the ball over, make a silly blunder, and it never takes long for Maxwell to feel the heat from fans, nicknames like "Hackwell" among the more charitable. Maxwell laughs it all off.

"It was probably summed up by a Collingwood supporter in the crowd at the game up in Sydney mid-year," he recalls.

"We'd been out having a look at the ground before the game, and as I was walking off with Shane O'Bree, this guy yelled out, 'You'll never be as good as Buckley!' I just looked up at him, laughing, and said sarcastically, 'No shit?' It's probably the most obvious sledge I've ever copped.

"I understand I'm never going to win the Brownlow or be All-Australian, or anything like that. But when I came here, Jimmy Clement was a real mentor to me, and one of his favourite sayings was, 'It takes all types'. You don't have to get 30 touches or kick five goals to have an influence on the team. But you can when you get your role every week just try to do it to a 'T'.

"I'm not someone who gets nervous before a game, even my first game, because I know I'm going out there to play hard and do the best job I can. If I've done the best I can do, I can't ask any more of myself.

"I might not have the ability of most other players, and if people expect me to be a champion, they're going to be disappointed, because it's not going to happen, but hopefully they can understand that I can play a role every week."

And as last week's effort demonstrated, not always a predictable one. Maxwell has been named to tackle St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt tonight, but could just as easily find himself on Justin Koschitzke.

Perhaps, as has happened frequently, he might get thrown forward. Who knows, perhaps another tagging job awaits. For coach Mick Malthouse, Maxwell is at the very least handy "get-out" material.

And what anyone outside Collingwood can't expect to understand is the role Maxwell plays off the field. It's that which goes a long way to explaining just why Buckley offered him the No. 5. Why his name continues to be thrown forward internally as a potential future captain.

Maxwell didn't ask to be a leader. He's quite happy about the prospect of Josh Fraser succeeding Burns as Magpie skipper. Or Scott Pendlebury, should the Pies plump for youth.

But a difficult path to an AFL career has given him a better understanding of the pitfalls and obstacles. Maxwell was overlooked in not one but two national drafts. He trained with but was rejected by Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Geelong.

And when he was finally thrown a lifeline via the rookie draft, he knew better than anyone he had to do everything absolutely right.

"Just doing all the right things in terms of working as hard as I could, learning all the game plans, knowing what to do in different situations," he says. "That's a type of leadership in itself, because you're helping set an example. That's probably how it started for me in terms of leadership. Others see you're doing the right thing, and that your name doesn't come up in meetings for different things because you've stuffed up.

"Quite often now I'll ask a question that I know the answer to so that everyone else gets it. Some people would rather not put their hand up, and I know it sounds silly, but that's the way it is, and it's easy for someone not to get something. I'm happy to stick my hand up and just make sure blokes get it, because unless we're all on the same page, then we're in trouble."

And while he'd never want any credit for it, Maxwell is making a habit out of helping others on a far broader scale than his Collingwood teammates.

There's his role as a member of the AFL Players' Association executive, Maxwell having quickly made a big impression on his peers with his interest in player welfare issues.

Then the other big task he's taken on this year, along with Geelong's Jimmy Bartel: helping set up a charity foundation for a former St Joseph's College, Geelong, schoolmate Michael Carmody, who was killed just before Christmas last year when a tree fell on him at Lake Eildon.

Maxwell was one of 60-odd former schoolmates who was on his way to an annual reunion when the news came through. He didn't take long to act. "He was just the best bloke ever, a teacher, someone who always wanted to do good for other people," Maxwell says.

The response was to set up the fund which would help children who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to make their way through school.

"I guess I took the bull by the horns a bit, spoke to Michael's partner, and family, and made sure they'd be comfortable if I set something up, then used Jimmy's profile to help get it started."

They're the sort of selfless acts that impress those at football clubs who make decisions. People like Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, who has stuck by Maxwell through thick and thin, and who approached Maxwell about the surprise tag on Thompson last week knowing that if the ploy didn't work out, it certainly wouldn't be through lack of effort. Not surprisingly, Maxwell is a big fan of the coach, too.

"Denis Pagan, Kevin Sheedy and now Leigh Matthews are gone, but I think the reason Mick is still going strong is because he keeps adapting," he says. "I reckon three or four years ago, a leadership group wouldn't have had any influence over any decision Mick made. Now he'll come and ask the leaders what they think and take that on board. And the amount he talks to and focuses on the first-, second- and third-year players now is huge compared to what it used to be."

Not that that would mean Maxwell would spend any less time helping the young players through their AFL infancy. You don't have to be a champion to be an important part of the side. And you don't need to be a coach to offer guidance and support.