Collingwood defender Nathan Brown is confident that he, Ben Reid and Chris Tarrant can all fit in the same team ahead of their first outing together this weekend.
The defensive trio have all been on Collingwood's list since the start of last season and after 36 matches, they will finally line up together in the top-of-the-table blockbuster against West Coast at the MCG on Saturday.
Brown said he was excited to finally play alongside Reid and Tarrant and wasn't concerned at how long it would take them all to get used to each other's game styles.
"You train so much with these guys and you just want to play with them," Brown said at a rain-drenched Gosch's Paddock prior to training on Friday.
"The more games we can play with each other and get to know each other the better.
"It is different out on the field but we've done a lot of pre-season and a lot of trainings together and we know each other very well."
And Brown believes there will always be room for three key defenders in Collingwood's side.
"We'll play together, we'll find our strengths and Taz (Tarrant) can play on smalls and week from week we'll find out different forward opponents and we'll go from there," Brown said.
The Magpies will come up against the best ruck combo in the league on Saturday in the form of Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox.
And after Naitanui's best-on-ground performance against Carlton in the wet last week in Perth, Brown admitted the 'one-of-a-kind' player will provide a daunting obstacle for Magpies rucks Darren Jolly and Chris Dawes in forecast similar conditions at the MCG.
But Brown is confident the Collingwood pair can get the job done.
"He (Naitanui) is a one-of-a-kind player and he is a fantastic player and we'll obviously have to take note in that in the wet he is obviously going to be pretty good and pretty handy to them," Brown said.
"We'll take that into account and try and combat it as much as possible.
"We take confidence in our guys every day of the week and they've got to do their job, they don't have to do anything special tomorrow, it's just going to be a (wet) day like this so they've just got to hit hard and make them hurt."
Collingwood have won their past eight in a row while battling a substantial injury list but they received a massive boost at the selection table with Heath Shaw, Reid and Alan Toovey all returning this weekend.
Although Scott Pendlebury (tibia), Alan Didak (adductor), Luke Ball (knee), Ben Johnson (shoulder), Andrew Krakouer (knee), Lachlan Keeffe (knee) and Brent Macaffer (knee) are still missing, Brown feels as though things are starting to come together for the Magpies.
And Brown believes Collingwood can set up the rest of their season with a win over the Eagles.
"We've got Carlton, Geelong and Hawthorn in the next month, it's just going to set us up for the season and give us a real good test to see where we are and how we're going to go because obviously we're going to come up against them in the finals series," Brown said.
The Magpies announced three re-signings on Wednesday and even though Travis Cloke was not one of them, Brown was confident he would remain at the Westpac Centre beyond this year.
"Walshy (Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh) is the best in the business and the players know that he'll get the job done," Brown said.
"We know Trav is a fantastic player and we'd love to have him."