COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley has played down his side's top-four chances, despite knocking off a second finals rival in as many weeks.
The Magpies gave the Sydney Swans a four-goal start at ANZ Stadium before engineering a 55-point turnaround to triumph 14.16 (100) to 10.11 (71) in front of 42,627 fans.
At 13 wins and six losses, the Magpies are level with Richmond on 52 points and are likely to be a game and a half out of fourth spot at the end of the round.
They face Hawthorn, West Coast and North Melbourne - all at the MCG - in the remaining three rounds.
While that means Collingwood is still well in the hunt for a top-four finish, Buckley says that is not really a focus.
"If you are a betting man, mathematically we are going to struggle to break into the top four," Buckley said.
"But more important for us right now is to be playing consistently well towards the end of the year."
The result is the club's third straight win and follows on from the victory over Essendon on home soil last week.
It also gives Collingwood some great momentum heading into Friday night's blockbuster against the ladder-leading Hawthorn.
"We knew that this run into the finals was going to be pretty tough for us. We've started it pretty well but clearly there is some work to do," Buckley said.
The Magpies took to ANZ Stadium with the same 22 that defeated Essendon the previous week and Buckley said Saturday night's demolition of the Swans showed him what the squad was capable of.
"We feel that we are just starting to settle, settle our team," Buckley said after the match.
"We've still got some players that are contesting for positions outside, but this 22 have now played the last eight quarters of footy and played really solid football in that eight quarters against some pretty good opposition.
"That sets a standard that we want to build on."
