COLLINGWOOD leapt over three AFLW sides in a penultimate round come-from-behind victory over Gold Coast, with last year’s wooden spooners ensuring they would not meet the same fate in 2025. The Magpies won by 15 points over the Suns, 5.9 (39) to 3.6 (24), thanks to kicking the only two goals of the final term.

Despite a 20-minute lightning delay at three quarter time, Collingwood came back after trailing by a point to deliver a fatal blow in the fourth stanza despite having half the inside 50s of the Suns. In an impressive performance, Collingwood coach Sam Wright said the key was to “lighten the mood” before getting back to the task at hand.

“To be honest we’ve had this experience against Richmond last year where we tried to keep the players up and about and zoned in and up and going,” he said. “To be honest we got one of the assistant coaches to tell a joke and just lighten the mood a bit but just get the players to understand that ‘hey we can build up, we can reset here’ and then brought it back into contest, what that looked like, brought an extra number around the ball.

“I thought the players ability to adjust to the conditions and move the game forward wasn’t pretty, but eventually we got on the end of it and were able to work our way inside forward 50 a little bit more with our offence.”

Wright was pleased with how his side progressed in the match to come away with the road win against the only side below the Magpies on the ladder at that point in time.

“We talk about progression a lot, developing side that we are,” Wright said. “Progress in so many different ways, but in the end footy does come back to winning, so it was unbelievable to get the win today. I thought the way the game played out, it was a bit of an armwrestle just talking to Shawry there.

“Especially in the contest, thought both sides really fought in the contest and we just felt we had to reset the game at three quarter time, make a couple of adjustments around the ball but I thought our players were so compliant in that last quarter and once they got the momentum you could see the enjoyment coming back into footy. I thought the fight was unbelievable by the players to get over the line.”

One of the key changes at the final break was Collingwood’s ability to go direct, and it showed with 2.4 from seven inside 50s compared to no score from Gold Coast’s 14 entires. Wright said the connection across the ground, but particularly going inside 50 was crucial.

“I think connection comes in different forms,” he said. “It also comes with time and we’ve got some senior players, we’ve got a few players out at the moment, and then you’ve got your younger players. So that definitely takes time.

“I think connection for us today was when everyone was on the same page, playing team-first offence. “That doesn’t mean that you’re going to get the ball, it means that you’re directing your teammates the right way, the way we wanted to move the ball so part of that was just trying to get the ball forward in that last quarter when the rain was pouring, anyway we could possibly get it forward and it eventually opened up.”

Collingwood returns home to face the other Queensland team – Brisbane – for the final round of the regular season. While the top four-bound Lions loom as a far greater challenge than their younger state rival, Wright ended his press conference with a clear statement.

“Brisbane’s a terrific side, but why not us?” he said.