Building the Bloods in the AFLW

Sydney Swans leader Maddy Collier believes the strong core of leaders recruited by the club for its first AFLW season will help lay the foundation of the group's own "Bloods" culture. Alongside Alana Woodward, Bec Privitelli, Brooke Lochland, Lauren Szigeti, and Lisa Steane, Collier was elected into the Swans' inaugural leadership group by her teammates earlier this month. The club has yet to name a captain ahead of their season-opening game at home to St Kilda this Saturday. Alongside coach Scott Gowans, they will now face the challenge of guiding an expansion side seeking to lay its foundations in a non-traditional AFL state already featuring an established AFLW entity in Greater Western Sydney. Nonetheless, 26-year-old Collier, who has been rehabbing an ankle injury in preseason, believes the "Bloods" culture carried on from the club's years as South Melbourne will help establish standards in a playing group dotted with several versatile players and highlighted by No.1 draft pick Montana Ham. "I think the biggest thing for us is the leaders that we have at the club are making sure that we show them the ropes and set high standards from the get-go," she told AAP Sport. "I think the club has been really good in that space as well; inducting us in and really making it a one-club feeling. That's been really awesome for us. "The biggest thing will be driving high standards and really buying into the culture that the club represents so well." Raised in Nowra on the NSW South Coast, Collier was a foundation player for Greater Western Sydney's AFLW program and played 15 games in orange before moving to Perth and logging 19 matches at West Coast. Now returning to her home state in red and white, she welcomed the growth of opportunities for female AFL players in Australia's most populous state. "I think it's awesome. When I was growing up there wasn't much AFL around, I would have loved to have done Auskick when I was little," said Collier. "Now to see that there's a pathway to go from Auskick all the way through to the AFLW is awesome to see. It's really good for women in sport in general. It's fantastic to have both clubs on board in the AFLW competition."