Sydney ruckman Callum Sinclair says the Swans’ faith is alive and well despite their recent form, declaring “we’ve proven our footy can match it with the best” as the side lifts its eyes to Collingwood.

Sydney sits in ninth on the ladder after falling to Essendon in a 43-point loss at Etihad Stadium last Friday and faces a testing run to finish the home-and-away season.

The Swans will clash with the Magpies in a monumental match at the SCG on Saturday night, who have won eight of their past 10 games and sit in third ahead of the Round 20 contest.

Sinclair says the Swans have no doubts they can dig themselves out of their dip in form.

“There’s still strong belief in the group,” Sinclair said on SEN.

“You don’t go through an AFL season with it being rosy all the time. The strength of our group is to bounce back and that’s what we’ll aim to do.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on at the Swans is how united our group is. We’re living in Sydney but a lot of the boys aren’t actually from Sydney, so you’re essentially brothers to be honest.”

The Swans have responded to lulls in form in convincing fashion on a number of occasions this season.

They bounced back from a narrow defeat to Adelaide to stun Geelong at the Cattery in Round 6, with captain Josh Kennedy producing an inspirational final-quarter performance.

Sydney trailed by 22 points at three-quarter time but booted seven last-term goals to Geelong’s one to snare a 17-point victory.

Superstar forward Lance Franklin missed the game due to injury and young gun Ben Ronke starred on debut, kicking two goals and piling on intense defensive pressure.

Wins over GWS (Round 3), Hawthorn (Round 8) and North Melbourne (Round 17) also followed losses.

Sinclair backed the Swans to again muster a compelling response in the clash with the Magpies.

“It’s just a patch you go through playing footy,” Sinclair said.

“Things aren’t going to go your way every week and unfortunately things aren’t going our way at the moment. But our group is extremely united and extremely strong. We’re going to do everything we can to get momentum back on track and hopefully push for a strong September.”

While Collingwood sits in third on the ladder and Sydney ninth, just one win splits the two sides amid a chaotic road to the finals.

Sydney, North Melbourne (10^th), Essendon (11^th) and Adelaide (12^th) all remain in contention to feature in September, while the Swans, Demons (sixth), Hawks (seventh) and Cats (eighth) are all locked on 44 points.

Sinclair said the Swans would have to quickly turn things around.

“The playing group and the Club is very aware of the tightness of the competition and how important wins are to bank, especially at this time of year.”