Bonnici injured as Pies down Dogs in AFLW

Collingwood fear gun midfielder Brittany Bonnici has suffered a ruptured ACL, souring a 25-point win over the Western Bulldogs that boosted their AFLW finals hopes.

The Magpies' 10.6 (66) to 6.5 (41) victory at Victoria Park was their highest-ever AFLW score and sent them six points clear of both the seventh-placed Bulldogs and eighth-placed Gold Coast.

But the win was soured when Bonnici had to be helped off the field in the first quarter after awkwardly landing from an aerial contest.

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The 2021 All-Australian was consoled by sidelined captain Brianna Davey, who suffered a ruptured ACL earlier in the season.

Bonnici was later on crutches with her left knee iced.

"She's just being assessed, she'll go and have a scan but obviously it doesn't look good at this stage so we're expecting the worst," coach Steve Symonds said.

"The luck we've had so far this season along that track has got to indicate it's probably going to go the unfavourable way for us

"She's in great spirits and despite that, she's really proud of what the group was able to produce today and the group showed a bit of fight for her.

"We'll just get around her now and whatever the scan comes back and says, we'll just get around her and other players will have to step up."

Symonds said Bonnici had been crucial to keeping Collingwood's heads up in a period of mixed results, travel and tight turnarounds and her teammates had stepped up for her.

"Today we started to get closer to what we were," he said.

"We took the handbrake off a little bit and stopped playing it a little bit safe and just went for it a bit more."

Jaimee Lambert dominated, booting three goals from 22 disposals and was well-supported by Ruby