COLLINGWOOD coach Sam Wright was frustrated in the wake of a four-goal opening night loss to Carlton after what had been a promising preseason from last year’s wooden spooners. Though an impressive win over Port Adelaide a fortnight ago gave the Pies belief, aside from a “strong start”, Collingwood was beaten both inside the contest and structurally in the 6.9 (45) to 3.3 (21) defeat.

The Magpies booted the first two goals of the game through Sabrina Frederick and Alana Porter, but aside from a piece of magic from number one draft pick Ash Centra in the second term, Collingwood failed to trouble the scorers with a major. To the point where the Blues booted the only two goals of the second half, and left a few majors out on the table with five behinds in the same period.

Despite the admittedly “strong start”, Wright said he still felt like “the game wasn’t on our terms early”. The Magpies coach said his side made the most of its chances, but once the Blues really put the foot down, the black and whites struggled for any structure forward of centre or around the stoppage.

“I felt like we were able to take territory and maximise our wins when we did win the ball through the middle of the ground,” he said. “But from there, we struggled to lock the ball in our front half and that is us, that’s where we want the game. We felt like the contest in particular we couldn’t maximise from it. We’ll have a look at what that looks like around the stoppage, but credit to Carlton they came out firing.

Wright said it was disappointing to see the game go that way given the “body of evidence through the preseason” that spoke to the contrary.

“I think when we talk about stoppage we don’t just talk about inside the stoppage,” he said. “It’s about being connected ahead of the ball too. “I thought we showed patches today, I think that’s the really disappointing thing, not just for me, but disappointed for the girls.

“We only saw patches tonight and part of that is stoppage you can actually set up on your terms, we didn’t quite get it right.”

Carlton star Mimi Hill had 13 disposals, three clearances and three tackles in a dominant first term, with 27 disposals and five clearances by the final break. Though the Magpies eventually sent Brittany Bonnici to her in order to limit the influence of the vice-captain in the final quarter, it was too little, too late.

Wright conceded her “definitely thought about (tagging Hill) multiple times” but ultimately erred against it in Round 1 until it became too obvious she needed to be quelled.

“I think in the first half especially though, you’re trying to get your system up and going and we put in a body of work and we’ve seen a body of evidence of what that looks like in the preseason in the two practice matches,” Wright said.

“We’re always looking to counter balance it back on your terms through your system before you make wholesale changes and start tagging a player. “In the end we had to send Britt Bonnici to her which minimised her impact and we fought back, but it wasn’t enough.”

Collingwood has a nine-day break before tackling GWS Giants at Victoria Park on Saturday, August 23. Though a disappointing first-up loss, Wright said he did not see the defeat as “losing momentum” just yet.

“We’ve put in a body of work, a mountain of work, we’ve shown the evidence through preseason so there’s no one behind closed doors that feels like this will go on,” he said. “They’re absolutely disappointed, but they’re super confident and we’ll probably a couple of weeks away from getting some more players back and that will start to filter in over the middle part of the year, but what I am confident in is the system and they’ve showed the evidence that they can outlay it which didn’t tonight.”