FROM the moment North Melbourne began its inaugural list build ahead of the 2019 season, a clear rivalry with Collingwood emerged.
Before any games were even played that season, the Kangaroos poached four key players from the Pies in Jasmine Garner, Emma King, Jess Duffin and Moana Hope. That quartet had been responsible for 45 per cent of Collingwood's goals across the first two seasons of AFLW, and their departures decimated the Pies' forward line.
This led to Collingwood's average score plummeting to 23.1 points per game in 2019, the lowest in club history, and a record that still stands today.
While the Pies were battling, searching for avenues to score and unable to register a win until the final round of the season, the former Pies were thriving at North.
With Garner, King, Duffin and Hope on their side, the Roos played an overwhelming, high-scoring game style, with their 49 points per game still the highest average score of any team in its first AFLW season. The quartet of former Magpies was responsible for nearly half of that score.
The first battle between the two teams, in 2019, was a regulation 22-point win for the Kangaroos at Docklands, but it was in their semi-final in 2020 that the rivalry between these two clubs really intensified on the field.
North Melbourne was the team to beat after topping the Conference A ladder, while Collingwood was coming from fourth in Conference B. But the momentum swings in that crowd-less game at Ikon Park - due to the then-emerging COVID pandemic - had the footy world enthralled. A three-goal second quarter saw the Pies take an unexpected half-time lead, only for the Kangaroos to peg it back and lead by a solitary point at the final break.
They wrestled and traded blows throughout the last quarter before Garner was the central figure in a moment that has come to symbolise the relationship between these two clubs. Her game-saving intercept mark in the dying moments broke Collingwood's heart, handed North a two-point victory and knocked her old side out of the finals.
And their rivalry went to a new level.
The next year, the most significant shift between the clubs was an off-field appointment. With North Melbourne opting not to renew the contract of inaugural head coach Scott Gowans amidst COVID restructuring, despite an 11-3 record, he was snapped up as an assistant at the Pies. It was in that 2021 season, with Gowans on their side, that the Magpies finally got the upper hand.
Their round four match broke North Melbourne records, but for all the wrong reasons. Collingwood held the Roos goalless for the first - and only - time, and handed them their first ever back-to-back losses as Chloe Molloy and Brianna Davey ran rampant on the Marvel Stadium deck.
A twist of fate saw the sides play once more before the season was over, lining up for their qualifying final at Victoria Park, where they will meet again this weekend.
The game eerily mirrored their final the previous year, with big momentum swings and key moments.
Collingwood held a slim lead at half-time, only for the Roos to pull away in the third. The difference this time around, however, was the Magpies' ability to go to another gear in the final quarter, kicking three goals and coming away with a six-point win that ended North's campaign.
Last season, Garner was once again the star for the Kangaroos, kicking three goals to sink Collingwood by 23 points. Both sides would ultimately reach the qualifying final, but progress no further.
This season, things look a little different. Collingwood is sitting in third place, with only one loss in eight rounds, while North has had a far tougher run, registering defeats to Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.
But Garner is still one of the best players in the competition, and Ruby Schleicher is threatening to become that player for the Pies.
Wherever they sit, and whatever record these sides have coming into a head-to-head match-up, history tells us it will be a tight, dramatic tussle worth watching.
