Lowly Collingwood have extinguished the Brisbane Lions’ AFLW finals hopes in thrilling fashion on Sunday as they beat their more-fancied opponents by six points at Victoria Park.
After the Magpies opened up a 17-point lead in the second quarter the Lions then hit eight of the last 10 scoring shots.
But they could only manage one goal during that run, their wastefulness ultimately cost them a preliminary final appearance.
The Lions needed to beat the previously winless Magpies to replace Geelong in the top two of Conference B but Collingwood hung on for a 3.7 (25) to 2.7 (19) result, their first victory in 364 days.
While the Magpies managed to avoid the becoming the first team in the AFLW to go through a season without a win, they still finished 2019 with the worst win-loss record achieved by any team (1-6).
Despite having everything to play for, Brisbane, who had more inside 50s (30-24), fell short and Geelong will now join Carlton in the finals next week from the weaker conference.
Making the result even more meritorious for Collingwood was the fact star player Jaimee Lambert (16 disposals and one goal) suffered a head knock in the opening moments of the final quarter and took no further part in the game.
Sarah D’Arcy was also instrumental for the Magpies with 20 touches, 11 marks and two goals while teammate Ash Brazill played arguably her best match of the season in defence and ended up with 23 disposals.
Jacqui Yorston was Brisbane’s best with 22 touches and eight tackles and she was ably supported by Lauren Arnell (21 and five tackles) and Alexandra Anderson (18 and six).
Collingwood dominated play in the first term as they blitzed the Lions for disposals (65-42), inside 50s (10-3), contested possessions (33-18), marks (17-5) and clearances (10-3), but they only had a three-point lead to show for all their good work at quarter-time.
However, the inaccurate Magpies got more bang for buck in the second term, booting another two goals, including D’Arcy’s second, to open up a commanding 17-point lead after notching eight of the game’s first nine scoring shots.
The momentum shifted from that point in Brisbane’s favour as they benefited from quick ball movement, but they couldn’t get the majors they needed to secure a win.
