North Melbourne has stuck with a winning formula as they chase a spot in the VFLW finals, making just one change for Saturday's Indigenous Round match against Collingwood at Victoria Park.

The Kangaroos demolished sixth-placed Essendon in their last outing, keeping the Bombers to just three points as they piled on 10 goals at Windy Hill.

They sit two points outside of the top six ahead of Saturday's important game.

Defender Tricia Cowan is this week's only inclusion, returning to the side after suffering a concussion in Round 5's match against Box Hill.

Cowan replaces Marli Klaumanns-Moller, who played her first game for the season in last week's win.

First Nations players Tahlia Meier and Mackie Sutcliffe will toss the coin and will participate in a gift exchange with Collingwood ahead of the Indigenous Round clash.

The Kangaroos will also wear their 'Always Was, Always Will Be' warm-up tops from Clothing The Gaps, a community brand managed by health professionals that celebrates First Nations people and culture.

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Round 10

Saturday, May 25
Collingwood v North Melbourne at Victoria Park, 11am AEST

For the first time since the very start of the season, North Melbourne’s VFLW side has claimed back-to-back wins after a frantic finish at Victoria Park.

The Kangas never trailed on their way to securing their fifth win for the year, and kept Collingwood goalless for the first three quarters to eventually claim a five-point victory, 1.8 (14) to 1.3 (9).

"It was a really tough contest and I thought Collingwood was great up around the ball and they continued to fight hard right until the last moment of the game," VFLW coach Brett Gourley told NMFC Media.

"It was definitely a game that was in the balance, they made it really difficult for us to score, we made it really difficult for them to score as well.

"It was a bit of a ping-pong match at different times with both teams being able to generate some spares, I thought we defended really well, we would’ve liked to score a bit more than what we did today."

Despite the strong defensive work from the Roos, inaccuracy down the other end kept Collingwood firmly in the contest, and when the field opened up in the last ten minutes of the final term, it created a dramatic finish.

The last quarter saw the Magpies end North Melbourne's impressive run of holding teams goalless which had spanned seven quarters going back to last week, with Maggie Mahony snapping truly to kick Collingwood's first goal of the game after eight minutes.

With two minutes left, a Kangas turnover saw Jess Jones and Sarah Hosking work back into defence to make a last gasp effort to force a rushed behind, after a quick rebound 50 from Collingwood almost led to Akayala Peterson kicking match-winning goal. 

"Our defenders have been fantastic back there for us, setting up really good shape behind the ball,” Gourley said.

"We’ve been able to generate some really good spares behind the ball, so that's been really helpful for us in terms of defence.

"But we’ve got to start to be able to move the ball a little bit more freely than what we’ve been doing and generate some better ball movement off half-back, similar to what we did last week against the Bombers, but they (Collingwood) made it really difficult for us to generate that today."

MAGPIES v KANGAROOS Full match coverage and stats

In the first half both teams' defences stood strong, having to deal with extended periods of the ball being trapped in their back 50.

However, it was only North Melbourne that managed to score from their periods of dominance, squeezing out five behinds to Collingwood's no score.

Tahlia Meier produced the breakthrough with a composed set shot in the opening stages of the third quarter, after drawing a free kick for holding off the ball.

Not long later, Collingwood had its best chance for the game so far as Emma Stark marked on the run in the pocket.

She was thwarted by an incredible effort from Nicole Hales though who worked back hard to put a finger on what was about to be the home side's first goal. 

The backline, led by co-captain Jones (14 disposals, three marks), Amanda Ling (15 disposals, five tackles) and Hales (18 disposals, four marks), were all crucial in claiming the win, with their intercepting work a standout.

"They were great, all three of them were really active to help us defensively today, and we were able to repel a lot of the Collingwood's attacks just from setting up really well behind the play,” Gourley said.

"Nicole was great taking some really strong intercepting marks back there for us, and I thought 'JJ' played her best game for the year today as well, 'Lingy' the last couple of weeks has had a really good return to form for her and she was influential in the game - in particular in the first half."

Renee Tierney led all Kangas for disposals with 20, while Audrey Rhodes was at her rampaging best, finishing with 18 tackles. Kate Reynolds put in an enormous shift in the ruck, clocking 48 hitouts and four clearances.

COLLINGWOOD           0.0    0.0    0.1    1.3 (9)
NORTH MELBOURNE     0.1    0.5    1.7    1.8 (14)

GOALS
Collingwood: Mahony
North Melbourne: Meier

BEST
North Melbourne: Hales, Tierney, Rhodes, Ling, Reynolds, Meier