When Geelong coach Chris Scott looks at Collingwood – and he examines them intensely – he can’t find flaws.

Scott is renowned as a master tactician but has trouble picking apart the Pies ahead of their mouth-watering Saturday night clash at the MCG.

“The teams that are towards the top end of the ladder these days, you can’t have too many flaws,” Scott told reporters on Friday. “So it’s easy to highlight their strengths.

“I am not going to name them, but I can think of a few teams who are really strong in one area that maybe because of their evolution in their list build, they are quite weak in another – that makes them really vulnerable.

“Whereas a good team – good attack, good defence, good contest, good system – that is more the way I look at Collingwood.

“I get it that the midfielders … they get the plaudits.

“But at both ends, their collective has been really solid, their experienced players are playing well.”

Scott added: “When you try and assess where the competition is, Collingwood are going through a patch where things are going well for them.

“I wouldn’t isolate it just to (Nick) Daicos going well in the middle or (Scott) Pendlebury and (Steele) Sidebottom at the peak of their powers in their mid 30s.

“It’s broader than that.”

Craig McRae’s ladder-leading Magpies boast a 6-1 record entering the blockbuster against the seventh-placed Cats (4-3).

And imposing Geelong defender Tom Stewart will miss the encounter after aggravating a knee injury in last week’s 18-point loss to Carlton.

“He had a slight injury where he missed a week about a month ago and he fell on that same knee early again in the Carlton game,” Scott said.

“Our medical staff say there’s no serious structural damage, it was just one where he was going to be limited.”

Scott also had to field questions regarding Stewart’s absence from the Cats’ mid-week injury list, the latest in a long list of similar shenanigans that have led to criticism from around the footy world.

The Tuesday injury list didn’t feature the star defender despite him having injured his knee two days prior, with his withdrawal from the Magpies game only confirmed when teams were named on Thursday night.

With the AFL having announced a crackdown on such obfuscation in recent years, Channel 7 reporter Mitch Cleary was scathing, describing the injury list as ‘irrelevant’ and merely ‘a chance to promote club sponsors and clicks, not health updates’.

However, Scott’s response to the question was typically cheeky.

“I didn’t even know that we release an injury list,” he said.

“Unless – is there a conspiracy theory, is there something going on in the shadows that I’m aware of?

“But I think likely, if I can speculate, is that we thought he’d be okay.”

Veteran Mitch Duncan has been summoned for his first AFL game this season, after strong form in three VFL outings.

“It was in the back of our minds that this was a possibility,” Scott said. “The Stewart thing probably helped it a little bit, but I suspect that we would have done it anyway.”

Collingwood have been strengthened by the returns of captain Darcy Moore, Lachie Schultz and Mason Cox.

Stalwart Jeremy Howe has been managed while Dan McStay (knee) and Lachie Sullivan (omitted) will also miss.

© AAP