Pies can match Saints

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Collingwood defender Simon Prestigiacomo is confident the Magpies can claim a major scalp against St Kilda on Saturday despite their struggles against the Saints in recent years.

The Pies have lost the past four against St Kilda, including two finals, and earlier this year in Round 3 they kicked just four goals in a disappointing 28-point loss.

They also kicked just six goals in their loss to ladder leader Geelong in Round 9, raising questions as to whether the Pies have the right game plan to trouble the top two teams.

While Prestigiacomo admitted that the club has done a fair bit of work on its goal kicking, he said it won't be changing the way it approaches the game because of past results.

"It's a great challenge, if we focus on what we've been planning over the year and if it comes out how we want to play it will be a great game for us," Prestigiacomo said after training on Friday morning.

"We've done a fair bit of work on our goal kicking and things like that so as long as we're having shots on goal it'll come sooner rather than later."

"I think we played pretty well against them last time, we missed a few set shots, so if we can hit the board, we know we can match them so we're just looking for another good game from us against them and hopefully we can get over them this time."

"We'll just go out there and play how we normally play and keep our match-ups and we're confident that the players that play on their small forwards can do the job for us."

Prestigiacomo said the club isn't worried about ladder positions at this stage of the season, but he knows how important it is to get a win over a fellow top-four side if the Pies are to finish with the double chance at the end of the season.

"If we want to be in the top four and maintain our spot there we've got to win these games," he said.

"It's no more important than any other but it's a good challenge against another top-four side."

"We just focus on the opponent we don't really worry about ladder positions all that much, we just focus on how they've played the previous few games and that sort of thing. We don't really worry about ladders until the end of the year."

Prestigiacomo could get the job on St Kilda star Nick Riewoldt, who made his return from a hamstring injury last week against Brisbane, but the 32-year-old veteran said that he wouldn't be targeting the Saints skipper like the Lions did last week.

"I've obviously played on him quite a few times so I dare say we'll cross paths throughout the day," he said.

"We'll just play how we normally play, I think in previous games and things we haven't really targeted too many players so we'll just play how we normally play and take it like that."

Prestigiacomo said he had 'no doubt' that out-of-form ruckman Josh Fraser will get back into the senior side to play his 200th game, while he said that captain Nick Maxwell, who trained strongly on Friday, is likely to play next week after missing the past month with a calf injury.

"Obviously he's disappointed, but he's pretty upbeat and he's going back and playing pretty well in the twos so it can't be too long before he is up there and getting his 200th game," Prestigiacomo said of Fraser.

"He's been pretty good and Shane O'Bree and a few other guys that have played a lot of senior footy are just doing the job with the young guys down in the VFL, which is great for our depth."

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