Collingwood will go into Saturday night's top of the ladder clash with Geelong pumped up and confident, according to young forward Chris Dawes.
But the 22-year-old has warned against reading too much into the result, whichever way it goes, just four weeks out from the finals.
"I don't think heaps is on the line because even if we were to drop this game we would still be a chance at finishing top two," Dawes told the media at Tuesday's training session at the St Kilda sea baths.
"It's another game and I think Geelong are going to treat it that way too."
"We both know we're going to feature in finals."
"Obviously it will be a nice edge to have over them if we do meet again in September, but it's not that big a game, I don't think."
"It'll be an indicator, but it won't be the be-all and end-all."
Dawes believes the Magpies, who are undefeated from their past eight starts, have come a long way since the club's Round 9 loss to the Cats when they were overrun in the second half.
"Our form line reads pretty similar to what is did when we came up against them in Round 9," he said.
"That Round 9 game we had a lot of the play and were winning for a good part of that match."
"Geelong are a quality side and that's why they were able to overrun us towards the end there and they made us look flat ... but there's no reason we shouldn't be confident."
"If anything, our form line reads a little better than what it did last time round."
"Both of us are going to feature in finals so we're obviously working towards tightening down a game plan that's going to hold up in finals."
Dawes said he was confident of holding his place in the Pies' line-up, though he's taking nothing for granted.
"We've got a number of good talls waiting in the twos to take my spot if my form drops much more," he said.
""The other part is we could go smaller so a tall could fall out for a small and we've got quality smalls in the VFL as well."
Asked how he felt about being described in The Age newspaper on Tuesday as one of Collingwood's 'worst' players," Dawes said, with a laugh: "That's probably fair enough."
"I'm one of the least experienced players and my form's probably been much more patchy than the others."
"I'm still in the team because I can play my role so that doesn't faze me very much."
Cleared of structural damage to his knee after taking a knock which forced him to sit out the second half of last Saturday's 48-point win over Carlton, Sharrod Wellingham moved freely at Tuesday's session.
Skipper Nick Maxwell, however, failed to take part and shuffled to and from the beach rugged up in his track suit.