Collingwood ruckman Josh Fraser senses a shift in the Magpies' mindset in 2009.

In previous seasons, they hoped to make their mark in September.

Now they fully expect to do so.

Fraser rates the current Collingwood squad above those which lost the 2002 and 2003 AFL grand finals to Brisbane.

"It's the quality and the spread of leadership through the group as well," Fraser said on Thursday ahead of Sunday's eagerly-awaited qualifying final against minor premiers St Kilda.

"We've got a lot of leaders and even at VFL level there are a lot of guys who could quite easily step into the AFL level and perform quite important roles.

"I think the group over time has really matured and if you look at the recruiting, (Scott) Pendlebury and (Dale) Thomas and these type of players ... they're playing really significant roles for us."

Fraser, who joined the Magpies as the No.1 selection in the 1999 national draft, had already played in two grand finals before his 22nd birthday.

As was the case for many sportspeople to whom success came early, he thought it would happen every year.

"But it just doesn't," he said.

"These are the times you've got to grab."

And he is confident the current team are well-placed to do just that.

"Belief is the big thing," said the 27-year-old Fraser.

"There's been a slight shift in the footy club in my time.

"In previous finals series we've hoped to win, we knew our best was good enough, but we'd hoped to play our best and win.

"Whereas I think we know that we've just got to turn up now and get the job done.

"It's the mindset of maybe maturity, maybe the quality of players we've got through the list.

"We know what we have to do, we know the consequences if we don't do it.

"For a lot of the guys, there's really no tomorrow for us."

On the back of a 20-2 win-loss record this year, St Kilda will rightly start as favourites on Sunday.

But one factor in Collingwood's favour is that they have played 14 of their 22 home and away games at the MCG this year.

In contrast, the Saints' only previous 2009 match at the competition's biggest venue was last weekend's win over wooden spooners Melbourne.

Not that Fraser expected the location to be a major factor in deciding who won and earned a saloon passage into the preliminary final two weeks down the track.

"I don't buy too much into the different grounds, you've just got to win where you're told to play," said Fraser.

"We've got to be good enough to play at the `G, we've got to be good enough to play at Etihad Stadium, we've got to be good enough to go interstate.

"From our point of view, it doesn't hold any great advantage that we play a lot of our games here.

"We look more at how St Kilda have gone about their footy this year and it's going to present a big enough challenge in itself."

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