Veteran defender Rhyce Shaw admits Friday’s clash “is not like any other week” with the Swans determined to shake poor recent form which has resulted in three losses in four weeks.

The Swans dropped out of the top four following Saturday night’s loss to Geelong at Simonds Stadium.

Shaw put the defeat down to a lack of effort, indicative of the two hefty defeats at the hands of Hawthorn and West Coast.

“We didn’t win the ball in the second half,” Shaw said.

“Forwards, mids, backs – we let Geelong dictate. To their credit they played good hard footy and outplayed us.”

The Swans will need to bounce back quickly to regain a top four spot and bolster premiership hopes with only four rounds left in the home and away season.

It starts with Friday night’s expected sell out against the Pies, a game that is a must win according to Shaw.

A former Pie himself, Shaw believes the playing group is “picking and choosing” when to pull the trigger in games of football and teams are capitalising on the team’s hesitation.

“It’s been a tough month but there are no excuses,” Shaw said.

“We’ve trained really hard but just haven’t performed…when we want to play good footy, we play good footy.

“When we don’t we leave it to chance and teams take their opportunities and we lose the game.”

Collingwood hasn’t been in glowing form either having lost six consecutive games before Round 19.

The Magpies returned to the winner’s list last weekend with a win over Carlton on Saturday and will need to win all three remaining games to feature in finals.

With the spur of four points and finals on the line, Shaw believes Collingwood will have its tail up meaning the Swans will have to make sure they’re on song under lights at the SCG.

“It’s pretty simple, when we want to be a good side and wins games we’ve got choose to do the right things,” Shaw concluded.

“It’s not like any other week, we’ve got to play good footy to get the win.”