> Watch Mick Malthouse address the media on Friday afternoonCOLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse has no doubt his side is a dramatically improved unit to that which lost to Geelong in round three, and he says they will go into Saturday night's preliminary final "very confident".
Malthouse delivered a blunt assessment of his Pies after they lost to Geelong by 27-points, saying: "There's a distinct difference – they're better than us.
"We haven't got (Gary) Ablett, we haven't got (Jimmy) Bartel, we haven't got (Joel) Corey. We've got other players, like young Beams, who are on the rise."
It was a different mood at the Lexus Centre on Friday, with Malthouse crediting Collingwood's young players with the side's improvement since that round three loss.
"What we've been able to do since round three is get a lot of games into young players [and] a couple of finals games," he said.
"So I'm tipping that our player group have improved dramatically from that game three because of the experience they've gained in the next 18-20 weeks.
"How much have [we] improved, well that'll be the test tomorrow."
Collingwood has made six changes to its round three side, with Steele Sidebottom, Sharrod Wellingham, Cameron Wood, Alan Toovey, Brent Macaffer and Tyson Goldsack coming in.
The Cats have made just two changes, with Tom Harley and Brad Ottens included and Trent West and Matthew Stokes (groin) omitted.
Malthouse said he had full confidence in the side he had picked.
"We've been able to come from behind [and win] on four or five occasions, have some big wins, have some losses to very good football sides and learn from it," he said.
"So it's an ever-evolving team when you've got youth, because they evolve into 10-game players, 20-game players and next to their name comes finals footy.
"There's no substitute for finals footy…and I'm positive we are a far better side than round three."
While the Cats' line-up remains largely unchanged, the second half of their season has been used to experiment with their game plan.
Malthouse said tracking Geelong's football had been interesting, but he was confident the Pies knew what to expect on Saturday night.
"You experiment perhaps to the point of eating into your confidence or your game psyche, or you stick to what it is and perhaps bludgeon it home all the way," he said.
"We've had to have a close look at that to see the variances in their structures over the last four to six weeks. We're pretty confident that we've got what we believe is their game structure.
"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."
