COLLINGWOOD'S forward line this season might have been unconventional, but its output was unprecedented.

The Magpies' 'Swoop Squad' of medium-sized, matchwinning forwards was one of the catalysts for the Pies' phenomenal climb from 13th to second – and it has claimed a unique place in League history.

Jordan De Goey (48 goals), Will Hoskin-Elliott (42), Josh Thomas (38) and NAB AFL Rising Star award winner Jaidyn Stephenson (38) made Collingwood the 27th team to boast four players who each contributed at least 38 goals.

Remarkably, this cold-sweat quartet was the first to do it without a genuine key forward or a big man among them.

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It was also the first time in 73 years, and just the second time ever, that the Magpies' top four goalkickers hadn't included some tall timber or a recognised key-position player.

The only other time that had happened at Collingwood was  in 1945, and probably eventuated only because some players were serving the country in the itinerant days of World War II.

The emergence of the Swoop Squad breathed fresh life into a previously impotent attack, adding speed, skill, excitement and nightmarish unpredictability for opponents.

If you were told before the season that four of Collingwood's mid-sized forwards would star, you would have expected established duo Jamie Elliott and Alex Fasolo (who has since joined Carlton) to be among them, given that between them they had won the previous three club goalkicking awards. And you might have even nominated youngster Kayle Kirby, who made his AFL debut as a teenager in the win over Melbourne in the final round of 2017.

However, due to various circumstances including injury and health issues, this ill-fated trio played just one AFL game between them this season.

In their absence, three second-chancers and a first-year draftee took flight.

In a group interview with the AFL Record in July, they credited their success to various factors, including an increasingly selfless culture, the team's defence-first focus, greater cohesion with their dominant midfield, being given the freedom to play instinctively, and the improvement of 211cm American forward/ruckman Mason Cox, who was rarely outmarked.

Will Hoskin-Elliott booted 42 goals in a breakout year. Picture: AFL Photos

Adding to the Pies' arsenal, Cox chimed in with 25 goals while mature-age rookie Brody Mihocek, recruited from the VFL as a key defender, was another surprise packet at centre half-forward with 29 goals in the last 16 games.

The chemistry in Collingwood's front half was particularly impressive given their collective inexperience and lack of previous football together.

Yet each bagged multiple hauls of four-plus goals, they tallied 166.75 at the superb conversion rate of 68.9 per cent, and their unselfishness was also admirable given they were responsible for 59 goal assists, often waxing among themselves.

While De Goey announced himself as an emerging superstar, Hoskin-Elliott found greater consistency and Thomas reached heights many didn't realise he was capable of, Stephenson was the biggest eye-opener considering he played every game and became just the second player to play 26 games in his debut season (the other was Collingwood's 1990 premiership star Scott Russell) and the first teenager to kick 38 goals in his debut season since the Bulldogs' Chris Grant slotted 51 at the age of just 17, also in 1990.

The Swoop Squad's challenge now is to provide a decent encore performance in 2019.

* Boasted five players who each kicked 38-plus goals.

* Information supplied by AFL statistics and history consultant Col Hutchinson.