The struggling glamour team of the national competition has failed to click after teething problems 12 months earlier, winning just once in five games this year.

But the return to Collingwood’s de facto Tasmanian home base that resurrected their fortunes last season worked its wonders towards a resilient 67-62 win over Queensland Firebirds.

“Yeah, we just love playing down here – it’s really so exciting,” Magpies coach Kristy Keppich-Birrell said.

“I think it has something to do with the crowd and how close they are to us on the court and their excitement. It really just lift our players.”

The match looked on the line at three-quarter time when the scores were locked at 50 goals each.

But the Magpies army’s roars were loud for every favourable twist and turn, and louder on each black-and-white goal to pull away to score nine of the last 14 goals.

“It’s a contributing factor,” Keppich-Birrell said of the fan support. “We did have the crowd celebrating every little win we had and it all rolls together into something pretty special.”

The deafening noise rose to another level when the crowd crowned Ash Brazill the intercept queen.

She was all over every loose Firebirds pass all game.

Brazill has publicly insisted her time spent with the club’s AFLW partner has helped her netball game.

“She’s just amazing, but it’s all the preliminary work she does where she knows where that play is going,” Keppich-Birrell said.

“She takes such a beautiful clean line to the ball and, boy, can she jump. That jump is amazing – it always has been, but it’s at another level.

“But more so the physical preparation for AFLW has made her a lot stronger too.”

Collingwood took to the court without incumbent Australian Diamonds keeper Sharni Layton in favour of debutant Matilda Garrett.

It seemed to shock the Firebirds from the start, calling for timeout after the Pies moved out to a 6-2 early lead.

Twin towers Romelda Aiken and Gretel Tippett often struggled at goal under pressure with multiple misses.

Keppich-Birrell felt that also came from midcourt intensity led by Shae Brown, Madi Robinson and Brazill.

“When you have that sort of height at both ends, you’ve got to make extra effort in the middle,” she said.

“That’s where the game is won and lost when you played against such talls.

“It’s the work done in between the two transfer lines.”

Layton came on midway through the third, but it was not a concocted plan to have a fresh defender to help out.

It was just moments after the Magpies’ seven-goal lead – the biggest for the game – had been withered down on the back of five consecutive Firebirds goals.

“We only planned if the momentum was swinging at that point in the game and that was the time we needed to make a change, that it was the point we picked that she could inject something there,” Keppich-Birrell said.

“We’re absolutely picking players on form – we really had to figure out what we could add to the game.

“So Matilda coming on for her first start at goal keeper was exciting, she has worked so hard in the offseason and was rewarded for that.”