Collingwood's list is at the healthiest point of Nathan Buckley's four years at the helm, according to its coach.

The Magpies, who have a win-loss record of 6-3, have 39 fit players to choose from in the lead-up to the clash against Melbourne on the Queen's Birthday public holiday on Monday at the MCG.

"We're in as good a shape as we've been in four years and that's a positive sign – that's something we've got right," Buckley said on Tuesday morning.

Collingwood has just four players on its official injury list – Nathan Freeman (hamstring), Brent Macaffer (knee), Jackson Ramsay (shin) and Ben Sinclair (hamstring) – at this point of the season.

VIDEO: Watch Nathan Buckley's mid-week press conference now.

Levi Greenwood (fractured tibia) and Darcy Moore (hamstring) are expected to return via the VFL, albeit in a limited capacity, this weekend.

The Pies also have Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas unavailable for selection as they await a verdict from the AFL’s Anti-Doping Tribunal after testing positive to performance-enhancing drug, clenbuterol. 

The Magpies' injury crisis reached rock bottom at the end of 2014, leading the club to seek outside expertise to help deal with its spate of soft tissue problems.

Buckley said Collingwood had learnt a lot from the nightmare run of injuries last season.

"Utopia has every player at 100 per cent fitness and 100 per cent of the time, but we know when you're playing an elite game you're on the edge more often than not," Buckley said.

"You're very rarely going to have 100 per cent choice on your list; going forward if we put the right work in, we can take advantage of (a clean bill of health)."

However, Buckley admitted captain Scott Pendlebury was playing through constant discomfort. Pendlebury had shoulder surgery in September last year while ankle pain has also been causing him grief in recent weeks.

"Physically he's not at 100 per cent, but none of our players are," Buckley said.

Collingwood was sitting in a similar position on the ladder this time last year (it got to 8-3), before crumbling to miss the finals as it lost eight of its last 11 games.

Asked whether this Magpies team was better placed to have sustained success in 2015, Buckley sounded optimistic.

"The proof will be in the pudding,” he said.

"We'd certainly hope so. We can't go back and change the second half of last year, and focusing on that isn't going to get us where we want to get to, because we'd be looking back.

"We don't need to look any further than our last performance to see our best footy is pretty good and if we don't bring that we're vulnerable."

Despite such a strong start to the season, Buckley said it would be foolhardy to alter the club's expectations.

"We've been really consistent with the way we've gone about our preparation," Buckley said.

“We've done some things well and there's been areas of our game that we want to improve.

"The wins and losses will continue to add up as the season goes by but there's still elements of our game that we'd like to grow and evolve, and we'll continue to put the work in."