The Pies were on top of the table after round 22 last year from Geelong, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs, before they went on to win their first flag since 1990.
After taking the top rung from Essendon in round two this year, they forfeited it to Geelong in round eight after the Cats won the first head-to-head battle between the two sides for the season.
The Cats still hold a one-game advantage over the Pies - who have had their two byes - despite losing to the Bombers on Saturday night as they still have one weekend off to come.
Despite the possibility of leap-frogging the Cats into top position a real proposition, Toovey says the Pies just want to make sure they're in the top four when the finals start.
"[While] It's always nice to finish on top, you've just got to win the games that you're playing and not worrying about the other games too much," he said on Wednesday.
"Top four, you get that second chance and it's always good to be finishing as high as you can.
"It's not the main focus to be number one at the end of the minor season."
Toovey said the Bombers' win over the Cats had emphasised that all teams could be conquered - or could stage an upset - on any given day.
He also said it highlighted the Magpies would need to stay on their game, even when they came up against sides currently not in the top eight, like North Melbourne this Sunday.
"We want to make sure we don't slip up a game like this weekend against North," he said.
"They're a good young team and if they can get up and get going, they can be a tough team to beat.
"We want to make sure we're switched on for every game."
Toovey has missed just one game through injury this year - the round nine clash with Adelaide after he copped a hard hit against Geelong the week before - and says his body is holding up well as the season begins moving towards its business end.
However, he admitted while some of the Pies had benefitted from the two byes and weeks off owing to injury, others could potentially be rested in the next two months.
"There were a few of them that went over to Arizona; [Dane Swan], and there are a couple of guys like Benny [Macaffer] who's been injured looking to come back in who have had that rest," he said.
"There's a fair few guys playing in the midfield who have come in and out so that might be their rest in there.
"I think the match committee will look at things like that, maybe the older guys need a break but I think at the moment everyone has gone pretty well and we haven't had too many injury worries.
"I think it's looking pretty good and I don't think we'll change too much.
"The way the fitness staff at the club have looked after us, we're coming into the latter stage of the season pretty well."
