Watch the press conference on the club's YouTube channel.

COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse says the Saints' recent six weeks are an indication they are nearing the standard they were at when the two sides met in last year's two Grand Finals.

The Saints haven't lost since their round 13 clash with Geelong and have beaten North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, West Coast, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Fremantle over the past month and a half.

Malthouse believes they are playing "a lot different" to the way they played when the Magpies beat them by 57 points in round 11, and were close to their 2010 September form.

"It's a very different side and structured in a lot of areas, they're different," he said on Thursday. 

"Has their confidence been restored? They've won six on end and nine out of their last 11.

"They're a very, very good football side and they're well structured and over the last month they've been the best defensive side.

"We're looking as forward to the match as they are."

St Kilda defender Brendon Goddard said earlier in the week round 11 was when his side was turning its form around after losing five (and drawing one) of its first nine games before the loss to the Pies.

Malthouse said the way the Saints had resuscitated their season had the Magpies' coaching staff pouring over their opponent's statistics and closely analysing where the change had come from this week.

"All the figures point to a different breakdown, totally," he said.

"We'll go back and have a look at [round 11] and draw comparisons to what they have done over the last six weeks, and the figures would astound you, how different they are, and how they play."

Chris Dawes, Harry O'Brien and Sharrod Wellingham are available for selection after overcoming injuries but Alan Toovey - who also trained on Thursday - won't return this week.

Malthouse said the potential inclusion of Dawes meant he would automatically have to rethink continuing with both Darren Jolly and Cameron Wood in the side, and that any player left out - including Ben Sinclair, who was moved out of the line up last week for Alan Didak - was an unlucky victim of team balance.

"It's whether we go with the whole lot (all three inclusions), given there's four weeks left and we've really got to balance out our side," he said.

"We've got to keep reminding ourselves that Heath Shaw is into his fifth week of absence, Alan Didak was absent for some time and played as a sub last week.

"Chris Dawes hasn't played for five weeks, Alan Toovey three, Wellingham three, O'Brien one.

"We've got to be cautious about how we put the side together so we're competitive but also giving games to players that need games."

Malthouse said the Magpies weren't concerned with the match of the round being played at Etihad Stadium as opposed to the larger MCG.

"It doesn't matter where you play. We played at AAMI [Stadium] last week and we'll play at Subiaco in a couple of weeks, and we played on the Gold Coast three weeks ago and the MCG in between," he said.

"There are grounds that are an advantage to the home side because of the length and the size and perhaps the conditions, but we've played at Etihad this year and the Saints play there and it's their home ground.

"We didn't expect anything different [than] to be playing there."

Malthouse didn't have an update on suspended defender Heath Shaw's progress in Arizona, other than to state he hoped "he's on top of a mountain, freezing somewhere".

Jennifer Witham covers Collingwood news for the AFL Website. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.