COLLINGWOOD showed plenty of promise during a second half fightback against Richmond, but ultimately the slow start cost the Magpies as the Tigers leapfrogged them into 16th with a 7.4 (46) to 5.3 (33) victory.

The game was not short of memories or highlights for both sides, with all three Mark of the Year nominations coming in the game. Magpies skipper Ruby Schleicher took two, but Richmond’s Sarah Hosking‘s back-with-the-flight grab in defence was up there with the very best in AFLW history.

Then came Violet Patterson‘s first ever AFLW goal, and fellow teenager Georgia Knight almost joined her running into goal but shaved the post on the way through. But despite the highlights and memories, the Pies conceding four unanswered goals in the first quarter told a tale of the tape.

Patterson kicked hte game’s opener, but Richmond star Katie Brennan responded immediately. She would finish with three, while the likes of Isabel Bacon and Ellie McKenzie had eye-catching finishes in that opening term. It was that start that hurt the Pies according to coach Sam Wright.

“It’s definitely around the contest for us,” Wright said. “They just got on top in the contest the way they fought around the contest, they really challenged our defence so for us, that’s how the first half went. “We felt like just our ability to minimise their impact around the contest but then gain ascendancy for us just wasn’t there.

“I thought we really responded after half-time, managed to get that back, but AFLW footy and where we are as a developing side, we need to do that from the start of the game. “For us it comes back to every time we step back on a footy oval, whether its training or a game, there’s a certain level of expectation that we need to play at. We’re still building that out.”

The main message out of the game for the black and white playing group was finding an “identity” and while the second half moves helped get back to that identity, it was too little, too late in the 13-point defeat at Victoria Park.

“We’ve worked really hard on what our identity is that flows through to our game system and a big part of that is the way that we fight, go about our contest work,” Wright said.

“AFLW is majority in the contest so we pulled a levers as well, but I think it was just the attitude of the way that we kept our feet around there, the way that we kept our balance around the contest, in particular our decisions when to take territory and go forward rather than inviting the pressure I thought helped us both offensively and defensively.”

Collingwood faces Gold Coast next week in a bottom two battle before hosting a red-hot Brisbane outfit in Round 12 to close out the season. Making the trek up to Queensland, Wright said his side was in no position to think any game would be “easy” despite the Suns’ form this season.

“I think it’s going to be hard, I don’t think we can come up against anyone and think it’s going to be easy,” Wright said. “We’re worried what’s inside our four walls at the moment, and where our progression is.

“Shawry’s (Rhyce Shaw, Gold Coast coach) coached me before as a line coach and as a senior coach, and he’s all about the fight as well. “He’s all about the contest and the fight, so they’re going to be really hard to play against but we absolutely cannot wait to bounce back and to come out and fight next week.”