Through the first two seasons, Collier, who also juggles two jobs, has donned the orange and charcoal guernsey 11 times, a tally she hopes to add to after a big pre-season.

“Our pre-season has been really solid and probably our best yet, when you combine the new girls we’ve added and that it’s most of the girls third year at doing this,” Collier said.

“The skill level before Christmas was much better than it was at the end of last year and since then, we’ve all taken it to another level.

“The main reason for this is that we have the same coach [Alan McConnell] as last year, meaning we can build on all our structures from last season.

“Although it’s been really tough, I can’t believe it’s already over – it feels liked I’ve blinked and it’s already round one.”

As well as gruelling sessions, Collier and her Giants have played in a practice match with the Brisbane Lions, as well as an intra-club trial, to prepare them for this weekend’s season opener against the Lions on Sunday at Moreton Bay.

“Against the Lions, we recorded a good win up in Queensland – I think training in the heat in Western Sydney really helped us cope with the hot temperatures up there,” Collier said.

“Although they played their full list of players, a lot of them were out of position, so you can’t read too much into that going into our round one clash with them – we definitely aren’t going to underestimate the Lions.

“Following the Lions game, which was a solid first hit-out, we played a scrappy intra-club – which was expected, as we all know our team structures and how each other plays.

“Personally, I was happy how I played and I thought I did my role well – which is one of my main goals this year.

“As a whole, both these matches gave us all a chance to impress the coaches for selection in round one.”

This season, Collier, 23, has been deployed on the half-forward flank – a position she hasn’t played too much during her AFL career, after having stints in the backline and midfield in previous seasons.

“Going into the pre-season, I didn’t really have any expectations where I wanted to play this year,” she said.

“But the coaches explained to me that they thought I could thrive on the half-forward flank.

“I was open to the idea and now after playing there for a couple of weeks, I’m really enjoying it and think it suits my style of play.”

Speaking of style of play, the former Nowra High School student said her Giants want to pride themselves on winning the hard footy and getting the ball forward as quick as possible.

“If you look why we were so successful towards the end of last season, it was because we were going in hard and winning those contested possessions and doing those one per centers that other teams aren’t necessarily willing to do,” she said.

“It’s a style of play we at the Giants really pride ourselves on.

“If we can all do this, as well as execute our own little personal tasks, we know that winning will follow.

“At the end of the day, we can only control ourselves and we can’t worry too much on what our opposition are doing.”

Once Collier’s team win the ball, they have been concentrating on working the ball down field quickly and efficiently, in a hope of kicking more goals.

“We all know we didn’t kick enough goals to win games last year,” she said.

“So we really want to create more chances this season and put our key forwards in better positions to kick goals and put scoreboard pressure on.

“If we can do that as a group, we know we can improve on last season’s fourth place finish.”

After their round one match on the road at the Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex from 5.05pm, the AFL South Coast product’s Giants will host North Melbourne (February 8 at Drummoyne Oval) and Carlton (February 16 at Blacktown ISP Oval) before clashes with Collingwood (February 24 at Victoria Park), Melbourne (March 3 at Blacktown ISP Oval), Adelaide (March 10 at Norwood Oval) and Geelong (March 15 at Blacktown ISP Oval).