After nine wins on the trot, including scalps over West Coast and Geelong, Swans coach John Longmire said this weekend’s battle with Collingwood will be among his club’s toughest tests.

The last time the Swans met the Pies was in round 14 last season, where Sydney got within a straight kick of Collingwood at the final siren.

Last season’s loss was the most recent of ten consecutive losses against the Pies over the last seven years, and Longmire said this weekend was his team’s chance to measure just how far they have come this season.

“It’s an important game for us and a good test for us,” Longmire said.

“We’ve come up short against Collingwood in the past and we haven’t been good enough.

“We think we’ve improved a little bit, but how much I’m not too sure. I don’t think this week is the only test for us, but we need to give a good account of ourselves.

“We got within a kick last year and hit the front in the last quarter but couldn’t quite get over the hump.

“Our challenge is to see if we’ve improved enough to get over a terrific side like Collingwood.”

There has been plenty of talk about the improvement of the Swans this season, who now sit a game clear on top of the AFL table.

Longmire stressed that talk is cheap if the Swans can’t put their improvement into action this weekend at ANZ Stadium.

“We’ve got to do it,” he said.

“We can say we are (well-equipped) and we can say we are in good form and we can say we’re looking forward to the challenge, but the reality is that I’m a big believer in actually doing it.

“You’ve got to action what you’re about rather than talking about it, and that’s our challenge on Saturday to try and action what we want to do and not just talk about it.”

After taking time out to watch Collingwood’s win over the Saints this weekend, Longmire said Collingwood are well and truly one of the top sides in the competition.

He added that their midfield group, including Brownlow medallist Dane Swan, Scott Pendlebery, Dayne Beams and Dale Thomas, were amongst the leading midfield groups in the AFL this season.

“I went and saw Collingwood play against St Kilda and they are still an absolute quality team with stars running through every line of the ground,” he said.

“You could probably roll of about seven or eight of Collingwood’s midfielders easily and I think that’s a massive part of where the game is going to be decided this week.

“Collingwood’s midfielders are some of the most elite and some of the most talented midfielders in the competition and I think our midfielders have been in pretty reasonable form, but we’ll find out how good of form they’re in against the quality opposition in Collingwood this week.

“If you want to test yourself, then there’s nothing like testing yourself against one of the best, if not the best team going around.”

Looking back on Sunday’s 22-point win over Carlton at Etihad Stadium, Longmire said he was pleased with the output of his team.

He praised his players’ consistent performance against the Blues, who were desperate to stay in touch with the top eight.

“Watching it again in the review this morning, we worked really hard and we worked consistently well for most of the game,” Longmire said.

“I thought some of our players’ work rate was exceptional and that’s our challenge to keep it going.

“Carlton had a lot to play for on the weekend and had won three of the last four and we were able to play a pretty good standard of footy for most of the game.

“We think we’re still in reasonable form at the moment and we’re looking forward to this weekend.”