SYDNEY Swans coach Paul Roos says talk of a seventh successive finals appearance for his side is “ridiculous” as he prepares his men to tackle Geelong on Saturday night.

A big win against Richmond on Sunday, combined with favourable results in other games, has left the Swans a game outside the top eight with three rounds remaining.

But with impending clashes against top-four hopefuls Geelong, Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions, Roos was under no illusions as to his side’s hopes of playing in September.

“People talk about the finals but it’s probably ridiculous. We’re mathematically possible but even Choco [Power coach Mark Williams] said the other day that at 9-10, he was a bit embarrassed about being in the eight,” he said before training at the SCG on Tuesday.

“If we can continue to play some good footy – and we’ve got three really good sides coming up – hopefully we’ll win more games than we lose but we know it’s going to be challenging.

“If we can get three really good games of footy in the next three weeks, then we go into the off-season with a lot of confidence.”

The injury-ravaged Cats head into Saturday night’s game at ANZ Stadium on the back of a 35-point loss to Carlton in round 19.

However, Roos said Geelong’s indifferent form in the past month – when compared to their all-conquering run of 55 wins from 58 games that ended in round 13 – was an aberration.

“They’ve got some real quality players and I know a few people have written them off, but I certainly haven’t. I have them up there with St Kilda, certainly in terms of talent,” he said.

“Their biggest challenge is just to get healthy over the next three weeks and if they do that, I think they’ve got a really big chance of winning the premiership in 2009.”

Roos said the Swans’ recent good form in running ladder leader St Kilda to a point and the win against the Tigers augured well for his side’s chances on Saturday night but he stopped short of outright optimism.

“I’ve got no doubt playing against St Kilda here, for those young guys, allowed us to play a lot better against Richmond because all of a sudden they’d played against the best team and the atmosphere that night was fantastic. That will be the case again Saturday night, playing against Geelong," he said.

“For us, it’s just about trying to get consistency of effort over four quarters and that still mightn’t be good enough to beat Geelong.

“It wasn’t good enough to beat St Kilda and it mightn’t be good enough to beat Geelong, because they’re such a good side, but that’s what we want to try and achieve.”