COLLINGWOOD has been lauded for its pressure in the last few weeks, and after three hard-working performances against unbeaten sides, the Magpies finally got one to crack. At home in front of fans at Victoria Park, the Magpies produced an upset to down the previously unbeaten Sydney, 6.7 (43) to 2.5 (17).

In what was an incredible first half, the Magpies had six scoring shots to three, but executed extremely well with five of those being goals while not conceding a major themselves. Leading by 28 points at the main break and pushing it to as much as 36 points when Kalinda Howarth kicked her third at the five and a half minute mark of the final term, it was always going to be an insurmountable challenge.

“I thought we executed really well today and I felt like the girls really came out of our shell with the way they moved the ball too,” Collingwood coach Sam Wright said. “When you get that sort of defensive effort along with the defensive system, it just allows you to move the ball more freely. I thought they did that all day.

“You always get nervous in the last five or 10 minutes of the game, but I think just putting ourselves in this position now more regularly where we start to win those games. I thought it was great.”

The Swans did perhaps raise the blood pressure a little shortly after that Howarth goal, kicking two in the space of five minutes through in-form talents Montana Ham and Chloe Molloy, but it would only reduce the final deficit to 26.

Wright said it was not a “lack of intent” or the so called ‘foot off the gas’ as to why the Swans ate into the margin, but rather their desperation to play a high brand of offensive football to try and grab the four points.

“I think when you get into that position and you’re five or six goals up, they’re going to throw things at you, they’re going to take risks,” he said. “You’re in that position that the Swans were today, Scotty’s not going to sit on his hands, he’s going to try and win that game, so that means they’re not worried to get scored against. They flicked a couple of extra numbers up through the stoppage and really tried to attack. I thought our girls held up really well from the intent and system point of view.”

Offensively, Wright described his side like a “chain” linking up from the stoppage to go inside 50 and were able to get reward for effort on the scoreboard.

“It starts in the contest every week and they’re a really dangerous side especially when they go forward, so we knew we had to match them in the contest but we wanted to do it with method though,” Wright said. “I thought some slight adjustments around the contest allowed us to feel a little safer with our contest this week, and then the flip side is you’re able to chain it out of stoppages and get the ball moving forward.

“I didn’t feel like the game was on our terms the whole game, I really felt like Sydney really pressured us in that third quarter, we struggled to move the ball, we still defended okay and held up okay, but there’s definitely still some progression in the way that we move the ball at different stages of the game.”

Wright’s side sits at 2-3 for the season and though in 10th spot, is technically only four points and percentage outside the top eight. The Magpies have had a tough start to the season and that will continue against a Hawthorn side that is only coming off its first loss of the season on the weekend.

When asked if fans could “expect the same” level of performances, Wright said “I’d like to hope” they would, but that “everyone’s a little bit different” and that the Magpies were “just literally taking it week to week” at the moment.

“I’m really proud with how our girls have maintained that attitude,” Wright said. “I think if they could, they’d come out and play footy again tomorrow, so that’s the kind of attitude that they’re carrying, but the Hawks are a really good side, Sydney are a good side, North are a good side, Melbourne are a good side, we’ve had them all in the first five or six weeks. They’re a little bit different so our defensive system’s going to be huge for us.”