Nathan Buckley makes no apologies for the quality of opponents Collingwood have defeated this season but concedes the Magpies will learn a lot about their AFL finals credentials over the next month.
The seven teams Collingwood have beaten to sit fourth on the premiership table after 10 rounds currently occupy the bottom seven spots on the ladder.
The Pies take on fifth-placed Greater Western Sydney Sydney on Sunday, then face current top-eight sides Fremantle, Hawthorn and West Coast in the month after their bye.
"Out of our first 10 ... you can only play who you play," Magpies coach Buckley said.
"I don't know whether GWS are a genuine top-four contender - I don't know whether we are.
"But obviously games like this go some way to giving you some more information around where sides sit."
Buckley said the inherent inequalities of the AFL fixture, along with countless personnel variables, almost made trying to gauge how 18 sides stack up against each other on a weekly basis an exercise in futility.
"There's plenty of things that come into play," he said.
"In the end I don't fall into that at all other than to keep performing as well as we possibly can ... and the ladder will look after itself.
"We've been able to do what we've had to have done for the most part and we've learned more about ourselves each of those weeks."
The Pies' injury list is set to shorten significantly in coming weeks with Levi Greenwood, Taylor Adams, Jarrod Witts and Ben Sinclair among the players set to return.
Greenwood will play his first VFL game since breaking his tibia in the pre-season this weekend, while Witts is a chance to partner Brodie Grundy against imposing Giants' big man Shane Mumford after missing Monday's win against Melbourne.
Buckley's preference is to play both of his young ruckmen in the same side where possible.
"Any young player with a bit of go in them likes taking on an experienced player with a bit of go in them," he said.
"When you're getting to the pointy end of your sport in an elite competition there's a fair bit of grunt that takes place.
"A fair bit of two bulls in a paddock and go and work it out."
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