Collingwood kick no goals in 48-point loss as Arnell calls out the standard

Collingwood failed to kick a goal in a 48-point loss to Port Adelaide on Friday night, and former AFLW coach Lauren Arnell says the game was not up to scratch. A goal is the scoring play, worth six points, and a team that kicks none is working hard just to stay in the contest.

The defeat was Collingwood's 10th loss in 11 games this season. Under head coach Sam Wright, who took over at the end of 2023, the Magpies have won just five games since the start of 2024. They were not the only side struggling. St Kilda and Essendon each entered round 11 having won only one game this season.

Arnell, who coached Carlton in the league's first-ever game in 2017 and later led Port Adelaide's senior side, spoke on ABC Radio. She said the match was not the best standard of AFLW football expected at this stage of season 11. She also said Wright had chosen to play "plus two behind the ball" for much of the game. That means two extra defenders kept back in their own half, so the attacking side has fewer options and the ball moves more slowly.

Arnell said she is not a believer in heavy defensive systems. She argued that coaches have a responsibility to grow the game and to "put on a show" for the crowd. She has coached against Collingwood before, and she recalled beating them at Alberton in 2024.

Collingwood's chief executive, Craig Kelly, addressed the AFLW playing group after media reports of unrest among players and concerns about how the women's program is run. Kelly said the club volunteered to be one of the league's inaugural teams in 2017. He said he now wondered whether the club would have been better off entering the competition later.

Kelly also ruled out an independent review of the women's program. Captain Ruby Schleicher will leave the club at the end of the AFLW season, the club has confirmed.

For Collingwood supporters, the next few weeks will be about results on the field and answers off it. For the rest of the competition, the game's own rules still reward teams that attack. Scoring is harder when defenders crowd the goal square, and that is the trade-off Arnell was pointing to.