OPPOSITION clubs are steeling themselves for a much taller Collingwood forward line in 2022.
The Magpies primarily ran with Chloe Molloy (171cm) and Sophie Alexander (178cm) as their primary targets last season, with draftees Abbi Moloney and Amelia Velardo playing two games each.
But fresh off a heart-breaking four-point preliminary final loss to Brisbane, Collingwood have brought in two tall forwards in the form of ex-Tiger Sabrina Frederick (182cm) and VFLW leading goalkicker Imogen Barnett (176cm) to make an intriguing selection mix.
"Our forward line gets talked about a lot, and I think that's just what happens at AFLW level, because everyone's trying to find the best forward combination and improve the scoring of the game," coach Steve Symonds told womens.afl.
"We're no different from other teams, we're still looking for the best mixture of what our forward line looks like and it's a work in progress.
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"We found in finals, against the better teams, they were wary about Chloe, and she sometimes found herself in two-on-one situations. She's not a tall girl, so we thought by bringing a couple of tall targets in, it would take the load of Chloe and allow her to be more creative – what she's best at.
"That might mean Chloe could play more in through the midfield at times than what she's done in the past.
"We just thought it gives us a few more options, and it doesn't mean we won't do what we did last year and play smaller up forward, but we now have options where we can do it if it suits for our team."
It's a common refrain among football clubs, but consistency will be Collingwood's biggest goal for the 2022 season, both across matches and within games themselves.
The Pies shot out of the blocks in 2021, recording six straight wins, but faltered against Brisbane and Adelaide, the eventual grand finalists.
"We know that when we start to get things right, we're more than competitive against some of the better teams in the competition. Possibly a few years ago, the team's belief wasn't at that level," Symonds said.
"We still have moments within games – and even though we won a lot of games last year, there were still moments within them where we didn't play to our full potential, our level or stick to our processes. Consistency is probably our biggest thing.
"The game is full of moments. Even that final against Brisbane, there was a whole heap of little moments, the ball bouncing on the line and went the wrong way, if it had gone the other way, the whole outcome of the season could have been different.
"The whole game is full of them, so (we focus on) what do we do in those moments, how do we react and how do we get over those situations and get things on track if they haven't gone right."
At this stage, Collingwood has virtually a full squad to choose from for its round one clash against Carlton. Young winger Joanna Lin has had an operation on her shoulder, but is expected to play at some point this season.
"Whilst we've shown some good improvement over the last few years, the girls were bitterly disappointed at the end of last season. It takes a lot of hard work to give yourself a chance to play in the Grand Final, and to fall so short at the end," Symonds said.
"I think all bar one person – and that was injury-affected – came back and broke PBs, whether that was strength or running, so it's a good sign and they've carried that mindset through the pre-season."
