The penultimate round of the VFL Women’s for 2023 continued to bring up plenty of surprises, and with nine teams still in contention for finals heading into next weekend, a lot more can still happen.

One of the surprises, not necessarily the result but the margin, was Collingwood’s 40 point win over Geelong.

In conditions that were tricky at times, Geelong could not make the most of its chances as Collingwood did and made it pay.

Much of the early play in the match was between the 50m arcs as the sides shared forward 50 opportunities.

Geelong started to gain more of the forward 50 time as the quarter progressed to its halfway point, but its forward 50 entries were inaccurate and Katelyn Lee was able to pick off several inside 50 kicks.

Although Geelong put the first score on the board, crucially it was the Magpies who nailed the first goal of the game thanks to Georgia Ricardo.

However, that would be the only goal for the quarter as the game continued to be tight and congested, with scoring chances hard to come by. This saw Collingwood take a five point lead into the first break.

Goals continued to be hard to come by early in the second term.

Collingwood had all the attacking play in early parts of the term, dominating forward 50 territory, but with the wind picking up it was unable to get the goals on the board. The Magpies scored seven behinds before Jessica Bates finally slotted a major through 12 and a half minutes into the term.

Alyssa Weston also found the goals with about three minutes left in the term to take Collingwood’s lead out to 26 points at the main break and keep Geelong scoreless for the quarter.

Geelong had all the early attacking momentum in the third quarter, but could not make it count on the scoreboard.

Collingwood then made the Cats really pay, scoring against the run of play thanks to Nyakoat Dojiok.

That would be where the goal scoring would end as the congested nature of the game continued.

Unlike the second quarter Geelong actually managed to put some score on the board in the third term, but it was only two behinds.

This saw Collingwood take a 31-point lead into the final change.

Things did not improve from there for Geelong, as it went scoreless again in the final term.

Caitlin Sargent gave Collingwood one final goal for the game in the last term, as it put the cherry on top of a really big win.

The win pushed Collingwood into second spot and gave it one foot in the finals.

In other results:

• Even though Carlton picked up a solid 29 point win over the Western Bulldogs, other results meant that it was still eliminated from the finals race.

The win was set up by Carlton restricting the Bulldogs to a single goal inside the opening three quarters, while the Blues kicked six of their own.

Christina Bernardi starred in front of goal for the Blues, booting four of Carlton’s seven majors. Meanwhile for the Bulldogs Sarah Skinner saw plenty of the ball, finishing with 22 touches.

• Someone else who found themselves in a similar situation was North Melbourne, who defeated Darebin by 49 points but had its finals dreams crushed by other results.

Darebin were never in the game as the Roos kept the Falcons to one goal for the match, which came in the third term.

Reni Hicks booted two majors for the Kangaroos, while four of the top five ball winners in the game also all being Kangaroos (the lone Falcon unsurprisingly being Angelica Gogos).

• Box Hill picked up a big win over Casey in more ways than one.

Ultimately going on to win by 27 points, it was not until the final quarter that Box Hill really pulled away from the Dees.

There were remarkably no multiple goal kickers in the game, but some of the major ball winners in the match included Jordan Mifsud (19 disposals) and Shannon Danckert (19 disposals).

• Williamstown took a huge step towards qualifying for its first ever finals series with a nail biting four-point win over the Southern Saints.

Williamstown dominated for most of the match, and while the Saints staged an epic fightback in the last quarter, they ultimately could not get over the line.

Teagan Brett kicked two majors for the Seagulls, while Jasmine Kawa (24 touches) and Tessa Boyd (16 disposals) led the way in the disposal count for their respective sides.

• Port Melbourne became the first team to book its place in the 2023 finals with a narrow three-point win over Essendon.

Both sides found it hard to find the majors in the first half, but ultimately it was Port Melbourne’s wayward kicking that was its saviour.

Despite losing, four of the five top ball winners for the game were all Bombers, led by Sophie Molan and El Chaston. The lone Borough was Lauren Caruso.