COLLINGWOOD’S Dane Swan feels the club is in its best position to launch a tilt at silverware since his arrival.

Swan, who was drafted to the Magpies at the end of 2001, will play in his first grand final for Collingwood on Friday night when his team meets Geelong in the NAB Cup decider at Docklands.

And while his side will be striving to take home the pre-season trophy, he spoke glowingly of the current Magpies squad when comparing it to those he has been a part of in previous seasons.

“[It’s] a lot more skilled, this list,” Swan said at the Lexus Centre on Tuesday.

“The youth here at the footy club’s a lot better than it ever has been … our depth is really good at the footy club now so if we do get a couple of injuries during the year we know we’ve got players who are ready-made to step in and can perform the same job."

Swan said Friday night’s NAB Cup decider would round off a perfect summer for his team as it closes in on the 2009 home-and-away campaign.

“This will probably be the first time we’re going to play against a full-strength AFL side,” Swan said.

“It’ll be a really good opportunity to see where we’re at and see how far we’ve come.

“Winning form’s good form … our preparation has been near-perfect I suppose. We haven’t lost and we’ve pretty much had no injuries to come out of the pre-season, so everything’s going along smoothly at the moment.”

Swan said he expected skipper Nick Maxwell and ruckman Josh Fraser to return to the side, meaning his team would be close to its best for the final hit-out of the pre-season.

Geelong is also promising to field its best available unit for the NAB Cup finale.

Despite the Cats’ imposing record over the past two years, the Magpies have enjoyed good success against Mark Thompson’s team – including inflicting Geelong’s only home-and-away loss of 2008 by a whopping 86 points.

However Swan, nor Collingwood, will boast any psychological edge over the Cats.

“They’ve made the last two grand finals, so they’ve got the edge over us,” Swan said.

“We got lucky early last year. They were pretty flat and we came out and played to our absolute best and they were nowhere near theirs, so that’s probably why we won pretty easily last time.

“They are the benchmark of the competition; they’ve won a lot more games than anyone else over the last two years.”

Dream Team watch – Collingwood’s Dane Swan is rated a $455,000 midfielder in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.