CARLTON captain Kerryn Peterson says her club cannot wait to take on arch-rival Collingwood on Sunday afternoon in the wake of a disappointing loss to the Western Bulldogs last week.
Peterson said she was looking forward to a heated clash with the Pies, where all form is thrown out the window.
"I feel like this game on the fixture is always one that is highlighted because of the rivalry," she told AFL.com.au at the AFLW Indigenous Round launch this week.
"There's such great history between these two clubs, both clubs at the moment aren't in a position where they would like to be as far as results go, but it doesn't seem to matter when you come up against the Pies.
"It's going to be a really heated contest at Vic Park which is a ground I haven't played at before. I'm really looking forward to it, there's obviously a lot of history for Collingwood at that ground. I'm excited to play and I can't wait. It's going to be a cracking day and a cracking game."
The Blues suffered a disappointing 33-point defeat to the Bulldogs last week to extinguish their finals hopes.
Coach Mathew Buck pulled his players into a huddle on the ground at half-time and Peterson revealed what the message was to the playing group.
"The message was basically ‘the way we're going about it right now is not it'. We needed to clean up some of our structure and contested ball work probably wasn't where we would like to pride ourselves on," Peterson said.
"It was a matter of ‘we're in this game, we just need to reset a few things' but unfortunately, we weren't able to do that and get the result we were chasing.
"We did see some improvement in some of the areas that we were going after but ultimately the Dogs were too good for us on the night."
Peterson hopes her side can find some consistency over the final two home and away matches this season to give themselves a launching platform for 2025.
"It's a little bit of a rollercoaster for us at the moment. We've experienced some great wins which have been really morale-boosting and a reward for effort, but we've had some disappointing losses as well," the Carlton skipper said.
"The challenge for us is to try and smooth that out and have more consistency in our game, go after our fundamentals and things that we can get right.
"We've got a really big opportunity over the next fortnight to learn, to gain some experience and hopefully find that consistency that we've been chasing."
The Blues will wear the same Indigenous guernsey in Indigenous Round that their AFL and VFL/W programs wore earlier this year.
The artwork, titled Ngiyanhi, comes from a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘we all' and was designed by Stewart James, the cousin of men's player Zac Williams.
The name encompasses the deep family connection and sense of belonging and purpose that the Carlton family feels.
"It's a round that the players are always really excited to be part of. Wearing the guernsey is one thing, but the lead-in to the weekend and all the celebration of Indigenous culture at clubland and in the League is something that we're really excited about," Peterson said.
"It's a real privilege and honour to represent the Indigenous culture playing footy on the weekend.
"What we do as a club really well is educating and celebrating Indigenous culture throughout the year, not just during Indigenous Round."
