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Brianna Davey has struggled with a tag against Brisbane but Collingwood coach Steve Symonds expects a different result in the AFLW preliminary final.

Collingwood AFLW coach Steve Symonds has thrown down a challenge to preliminary final opponents Brisbane - tag Brianna Davey at your own risk.

The Lions sent Cathy Svarc to the Magpies co-captain in their previous AFL meeting, with the tagger limiting Davey to just 14 disposals as Brisbane prevailed by three points.

But after Davey returned to her powerful best with 31 disposals against North Melbourne, Symonds expects her to be ready for whatever the Lions throw at her.

"Bri's a quality player and an unbelievable competitor," Symonds said.

"Bri took some really good learnings from that game as well, that she went a little bit defensively to try and take herself away from the ball and allow our other players to do their stuff.

"We spoke about that afterwards - that we want Bri to be in there amongst it, so I think you'll find Bri Davey will be pretty combative this weekend and she'll be in and around the ball rather than sitting back and holding out."

Symonds said the Collingwood players would support Davey but shrugged off any suggestion she'd need help shaking a tag.

"Bri can handle herself pretty well, so I think the more physicality she gets, it actually goes the other way and it inspires her and she actually goes even harder," he said.

"To be honest, I hope Brisbane actually do go pretty hard at her because that'll actually get her going even better for us."

Symonds said the Magpies took plenty out of their loss to Brisbane last month - a game moved to Whitten Oval at short notice, while defender Sophie Casey is expected to be cleared to return from concussion, creating a selection quandary.

The AFLW team will play at Hickey Park on Saturday afternoon while the men's team will host GWS at the MCG that night - meaning any shared staff will have to be split.

Collingwood AFL defender Jordan Roughead is an AFLW assistant coach and among those unable to make the trip to Brisbane but Symonds said the AFLW team were "all good" from a staffing perspective.