Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse rates the team that will take the field against Geelong in Saturday night's preliminary final as far superior to the Magpies line-up that was rolled by the Cats by 27 points in Round 3.
The Pies' preliminary final side includes six players who didn't take part in Round 3 while the Geelong line-up is identical save for two changes - Brad Ottens and Tom Harley in for Mathew Stokes and Trent West.
The turnover at Collingwood comprises the following inclusions - Steele Sidebotttom, Cameron Wood, Sharrod Wellingham, Brent Macaffer, Alan Toovey and Tyson Goldsack - for Shannon Cox, Nathan Brown and Paul Medhurst who played in Round 3 but failed to make the 22 selected for Saturday, along with Marty Clarke, Dayne Beams and Josh Fraser who are the Pies' preliminary final emergencies.
Speaking to the media at the Lexus Centre on Friday, Malthouse said he's convinced the overhaul is for the better and believes that Round 3, which was the only meeting between the sides this year, is an unreliable guide.
"We were playing a side that had won a remarkable number of games over three years, and as the year's gone on ... I think Geelong's made one change from the squad and we've made six-to-nine changes," said Malthouse.
"In that six-to-nine changes there are a lot of players who really didn't understand league football."
"We'll go into this game 50-odd-years younger, but what we've been able to do since Round 3 is get a lot of games into our young players and a couple of finals games."
"I'm tipping that our playing group have improved dramatically from that game three because of the experience they've gained in those 18 to 20 weeks."
"How much they've improved, that will be the test tomorrow - it's an ever-evolving team when you've got youth - but I'm positive that we're a far better side than Round 3."
Malthouse said it had been an interesting process tracking the Cats through the second-half of the season, knowing that they could afford to experiment and still finish in the top two.
"We've had a close look at the variances in their structures over the last four-to-six weeks and we're pretty confident that we've got what we believe is their game structure," he said.
"I don't see why they would want to change it given it's been so successful for them over the last three years."
"I think what we've seen is pretty much what we're going to get."
Asked whether he thought his recent newspaper column in which he said Geelong was under 'excruciating pressure' to win another premiership had given the Cats ammunition for Saturday night, Malthouse said he had no regrets.
"The moment people start to worry about things that don't concern them, if that's what's happened, it's fantastic because I haven't given it a second thought," he said.
"So therefore my energies are directed totally at the Geelong side and our side."