Magpies are `off top pace`

"We are nowhere near the top four teams," Burns said.

Burns conceded the seventh-placed Pies (4-4) have "a fair bit of ground to make up".

"The top three teams haven`t been beaten yet and Adelaide are playing really good footy," Burns said as the Pies prepared for the preliminary final rematch.

"Last week (beating St Kilda) was hopefully a little bit of a stepping stone for us to really gain some momentum in this middle part of the season."

Burns, 33, said the Magpies had not thought "what if?" about their five-point 2007 preliminary final loss to eventual premiers Geelong.

"At the end of the day, they deserved to win that game," he said.

"I think it`s one of those things if someone had a shot late and missed it, or if you had control of the play for most of the game and you`re unlucky enough to get beaten, you`d probably be a little more gutted.

"But I think on that occasion they had us at arm`s length most of the night and they were just a bit too good.

"You can`t even talk about things like that (making the grand final) because, at the end of the day, we weren`t as good as Port Adelaide because we didn`t get there. That`s all that matters."

Burns said recent matches against Hawthorn and the Saints had indicated where Collingwood was at.

"In all honestly, we probably got St Kilda at the right time of the year with the injuries they have," he said.

"I`m not sure of the significance of (the St Kilda win) yet, but it was definitely important.

"We really needed the four points. It didn`t really matter how we got them, whether it was a scrap or whether we played fantastic footy.

"I guess if you`ve got to have question marks about us, they`d still be there. There might be a few more answered on Friday night."

The Magpies are expected to regain ruckman Josh Fraser, who missed a week after hurting his knee in the Hall of Fame tribute game.