The Swans haven’t beaten the Magpies since round 13, 2005 but with up to six new faces likely to take the field against Collingwood, Roos said recent history counted for little in the blockbuster clash.
He expected his players to return mentally and physically refreshed from a four-day break, ready to take on the third-placed Pies who are coming off a round-12 draw against Melbourne.
“We’re a different team; we play differently this year. Not because our gameplan’s changed but just because we’ve got different personnel,” he said on Wednesday morning.
“We’ve got Tadhg back, we’ve got Benny McGlynn, Joey Kennedy; Gary Rohan and Lewis Jetta have been playing. Nick Smith’s an important part of it.
“We’re a fairly different team but we certainly need to play a lot better than we have against them in the past.”
With two wins and a narrow loss to Hawthorn in the past three weeks, Roos said the Swans’ formline augured well for a good performance against the high-flying Pies.
“We struggled against Geelong, the Bulldogs and Freo - three of the best teams in the competition - so it’s another test for us,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of good games, we’ve got a few players back and we’ve always struggled to beat Collingwood.
“The Swans fans would be really pleased with the way our team’s bounced back over the last couple of weeks and obviously Collingwood’s in really good form as well.
“It’s a great rivalry and we haven’t been able to crack the code for many, many years now, so it would be nice to get one over Mick before I retire. I might ring him next week and see if we can come to some sort of agreement.”
Roos maintained that Daniel Bradshaw was a likely starter against Collingwood after undergoing a second minor knee operation but he said the club’s leading goalkicker in 2010 couldn’t afford any setbacks in his recovery.
“At this stage, the plans would be to train him Tuesday for a little bit and then Thursday next week, so he’s certainly on track to play,” he said.
“Having said that, we’re not going to take any risks with him because there’s a fair bit of the season to go and he’s come along really well.”
Mark Seaby (ankle) and Craig Bolton (achilles) are still several weeks from a return, while Jarred Moore will remain in the reserves as he battles to shake a troublesome ankle injury.
“[Moore] had another roll of the ankle on the weekend so we just want to try him again in the seconds. It’s a thing that’s permanent rather than a thing that’s going to be fixed,” Roos said.
