Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley admits his AFL side lacks the endurance to run with the competition’s best.

The Magpies were thrashed by 47 points by reigning premiers Sydney at the MCG last Friday night.

Buckley said the Swans were better than any other club the Magpies had faced this season, a significant statement given Collingwood have already played all of the top five teams.

The Collingwood coach said his side didn’t work as hard as the Swans and would focus on running harder and defending more strongly ahead of Friday night’s Gabba meeting with Brisbane.

But he said part of the problem was his players simply didn’t have the stamina to stay with the Swans once they got the ball in space.

“Sydney, I don’t know what their endurance profile is, but from the outside in it looks like they’ve got six, seven, eight elite endurance runners that can run at pace up and back,” Buckley told reporters on Tuesday.

“We don’t have the capacity to match that at the moment with our personnel.”

Buckley said that meant if the Magpies were going to compete with such sides, they needed to win the battles when the ball was in congestion and deny opponents space.

“If we make it a running battle it’s probably going to be harder for us to win,” he said.

“We acknowledge the strengths in our group – we’re a hard, contested-ball side.

“When we put pressure on as a team on the opposition, we create opportunities for ourselves and we defend well.

“That’s what we saw two weeks ago (against Geelong) and that’s utopia, that’s what we’re looking for.”

Buckley said the injury-enforced absences of experienced players – with the Magpies missing Dayne Beams, Dale Thomas and Clinton Young – wasn’t helping their running ability.

The Cats are the only member of the top five that 11th-placed Collingwood have beaten.

Buckley forecast team changes, saying individuals needed to be held to account for last round’s performance.

He said running backman Heath Shaw should return from a back injury.

But Buckley acknowledged part of the reason Shaw didn’t return against the Swans was because the Magpies weren’t happy with results of his recent skinfold tests.

“That’s an ongoing battle for him,” he said.

Rookie-lister Kyle Martin, yet to make his AFL debut, will also be in selection contention after impressive VFL form.

But key position utility Lachie Keeffe, who hasn’t played at AFL level since seriously injuring his knee in round nine last year, is some way from a return after bruising a kidney in his weekend VFL comeback.