Collingwood captain Scott Burns sees his AFL team as "teetering" - a couple of wins away from the top four, but also a couple of losses off crisis.

The Magpies followed up their massive wins over Geelong and Collingwood with a hard-fought 21-point win over bottom side Melbourne at the MCG.

That left Collingwood sixth halfway through the season with a reasonably-solid 7-4 win-loss record.

"We're going okay, it's good to be 7-4, but we're still sixth - we're only a couple of days from dropping out of the eight altogether," Burns said.

"You might be a couple of games from trying to sneak into the top four.

"We're really teetering at the moment and it's up to us, I think.

"No-one is control of it but ourselves, to which direction we want to head by round 15 or 16."

Carlton's outstanding comeback win over Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium suddenly adds significance to the clash next Sunday between the Blues and Magpies, two of the fiercest rivals in the game.

Burns has no doubt that the game means Collingwood will face a formidable challenge.

"Just watching Carlton yesterday, whenever you go interstate and pull off a big win like that, that momentum carries you for a quite a while," he said.

"So it's going to be a really tough game on Sunday and we've got to make sure we do everything right now throughout the week with recovery and those sorts of things.

"It's one of those bonuses, playing for Collingwood, there seems to be a game every week that the other club are building up.

"We're really looking forward to this one on Sunday."

Burns starred with 36 possessions - the most he has amassed in a single game during his outstanding 254-game AFL career.

He also had nine clearances, just over a quarter of the team's total of 35.

But Burns has never been one to pump up his own tyres and he played down the contribution.

"It's probably like the team, I still feel like I've got a lot of work to do," he said.

"I don't worry about possessions too much, it's more how I'm moving, how I'm feeling and what I do with them.

"You get a few junk ones at times, I've got a lot of improvement in my game, too."

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