Sydney coach John Longmire believes Collingwood are just as capable as Hawthorn and Geelong when it comes to foiling his side’s AFL premiership defence.
The second-placed Swans host the sixth-placed Magpies at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, a rematch of last year’s preliminary final at the same venue and potentially a precursor of another tussle in September.
While the Magpies have been inconsistent this season, most notably a round-17 loss to Gold Coast, a last-start 79-point walloping of Essendon left Longmire in no doubt about their premiership credentials.
“Absolutely. Collingwood’s best form is still as good as anyone’s best form,” Longmire replied when asked if the ‘Pies were still in the top-four mix.
“We saw that on the weekend against Essendon, who have had a really good year.
“So Collingwood at their best are a really talented team. They put pressure on around the ball and that’s certainly what they showed on the weekend.
“…We come up against a Collingwood who had their best game of the year on the weekend, they won by 80 points and had 80 tackles.”
Saturday will be just the Swans’ second clash at the Sydney Olympic Park venue since downing Collingwood by 26 points in last year’s preliminary final, which snapped an 11-match losing streak against the Magpies.
Longmire noted the match wouldn’t feature in his side’s preparations for round 20.
“Teams move on really quickly … generally what we do with most teams is look at the last three weeks of their form,” he said.
“Both teams will look at our game at the MCG (this season) a little bit, but you really put a lot of weight in what happened on the previous weekend, so we’ll be looking at the Bombers game.”