Steve Symonds has steered Collingwood into its third consecutive finals campaign, secured with a resounding 38-point win over Richmond in the final round of the regular season.

The Pies finished in sixth place after overcoming a number of challenges this year, including injuries to key personnel and an extended stint on the road.

"We had a few players unavailable, we were hit pretty hard with injuries and other teams had found out our game style so we had to switch it up," Symonds said post-match.

"It breaks your heart when you see some of your players go down but our girls keep stepping up and they are really enjoying their footy at the moment and I think that's showing.

"We felt through the middle stages of the season we were playing too slow and trying to use our feet and it wasn't quite working for us.

"We've had an up and down year but once finals start it's a new season - everyone starts again."

Symonds said the new game style was more up-tempo but still required some fine tuning.

"The girls like playing that way, with excitement and energy," he said.

"We've found our spirit and our fight again and this group has a lot of fight in them.

"We just need more balance in our game around knowing when to go fast and when to go slow, when to kick and when to handball.

"If we get that balance right we can be dangerous come finals."

Jaimee Lambert was among our best, gathering 20 disposals to half time and 31 for the match.

"Jaimee is severely underrated - in my mind she is a top five player in the competition," Symonds said.

"She puts her head over the ball and she's so smart with how she uses the footy.

"She has that fire and her ability to set us up is really strong."

On the discussion around an AFLW season start in August, Symonds said he had "a foot in each camp."

"I can see the benefits and the negatives of starting in August," he said.

"With four new teams coming in this year moving the season forward puts a lot of teams under pressure.

"You're looking at the draft age with young girls still in their last year of school - there's a lot to think through.

"I see the merit of it, I'm just not sure if this is the year to do it."