AFTER finding itself outside the top four for the first time since round 11, the Sydney Swans must overcome a major hoodoo if they are to keep alive their hopes of a double chance.

Not only do the Swans face Collingwood this week, a side they haven’t beaten since round 13, 2005, but they have only won two games out of their past seven, both by less than a goal.

Despite the Swans struggling on the field, coach Paul Roos believes teams can turn form around in a week.

“Form is relative,” Roos said. “You have to put form into perspective. There is Geelong and the rest of us. If everyone compares themselves to Geelong in terms of form we are all in bad form.

“We need to compete against Collingwood this week and compete a lot better than we did against Geelong last week. North Melbourne has won six in a row after Mike Sheahan labelled them a terrible footy team. That was six weeks ago. Now they are the form team of the competition along with Geelong so you can turn your form around.

“One of the good things this year is that we have an eye to the future and we have been able to play a lot of young kids.”

Roos believes that Collingwood always lifts when they come up against the Swans, and that the two sides match-up evenly.

“They really get up for our games,” Roos said. “They know we play contested footy and they have a similar type structure with some hard under type midfielders like [Scott] Burns and [Shane] O’Bree and guys like that. They tend to match up pretty well against us.”

Roos hinted strongly that both Kieren Jack and Patrick Veszpremi could return to the senior team this week.

“We might have to bring some young players this week,” Roos said. “If you do lose or you are not playing well at least you are gaining something from it. There is not a lot to be gained with losing with the same sort of team. At least this year we have introduced a lot of new players.

“If you limp into them [the finals] you probably have to determine do you then start to play Kieren Jack or Patrick Vaspremi in the finals so at least you get some experience into those young players. That is the balance to get in the last two games.”