Collingwood have stunned AFL reigning premiers Geelong, smashing them by 86 points with a brutal and brilliant team performance at the MCG.

The Magpies' fierce tackling set the agenda from the opening bounce and they dominated all but a few minutes of the match, winning 20.14 (134) to 7.6 (48).

Travis Cloke kicked four goals, while fellow key forward Anthony Rocca also emphatically answered his critics and defender Marty Clarke was best afield.

The Cats had won 27 of their last 28 matches before, but after several weeks of just doing enough to win, were overwhelmed by a consummate team effort.

It was Geelong's biggest loss since Adelaide beat them by 92 points in round 13, 2006.

While the Magpies were a machine, the Cats floundered under intense pressure.

Midfielder Dale Thomas, one of Collingwood's best, provided the exclamation point of the win with an audacious goal 19 minutes into the final term.

Thomas was under pressure, deep in a forward pocket, when he put the ball on the outside of his right boot and it bounced through to the delight of the Collingwood faithful.

It was Collingwood's best performance since the preliminary final last year, when they nearly caused a massive upset but lost by five points.

In front of nearly 80,000 fans and on a perfect night for football, the Magpies hit top gear.

The statistic that mattered most was the tackle count - 84 to 49.

The Cats' only serious challenge came in the first four minutes of the third quarter, when they kicked three unanswered goals.

They reduced the margin from 51 points at halftime to 33 and briefly looked as though they were working their way back in the game.

But the Magpies steadied for five minutes and then Rocca took a strong mark on a half-forward flank.

His pass then found Alan Didak, who out-marked Matthew Scarlett and kicked the steadying goal.

The back page of Thursday's Geelong Advertiser had featured a pair of rabbit ears super-imposed on Rocca's head, with the declaration that he was Scarlett's "bunny".

But Rocca got the last laugh, helping the 'Pies lead comfortably by 63 points at the last change.

There were no free kicks paid under the league's controversial changes to the interchange laws.

The AFL's tightening-up of the interchange system was trialled last week and the free-kick penalty came into force on Friday night.

But the new system is creating trouble at times, as shown 12 minutes into the third quarter.

There was brief confusion as four Magpies tried to leave the field at the same time.

Collingwood midfielder Shane O'Bree appeared to be yelling at officials on the sidelines.

Didak was trying to limp off for medical attention, but had to wait several minutes before he could leave the field.

Paul Chapman, nearly best afield in last week's comeback win over Richmond, was a late withdrawal from the Geelong side with a hamstring injury.

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse was rapt with the performance, saying he would struggle to remember such a high tackle count in a match.

"We've got to be very, very careful here - Geelong have been up for a long, long time," he said.

"I'm not going to second-guess (Geelong coach) Mark Thompson, but I would suspect he would think they're just about due and perhaps the intensity wasn't there.

"Sometimes, when momentum shifts to the other side, it's hard to wrestle it back.

"We've got to be very cautious, we are not a 10-goal better side than Geelong, but sometimes the scoreboard falls your way and we'll take it."

Thompson said there were no signs during the week that would go so horribly wrong for his team.

"We just had a bad night, a really bad night and I think it was right from the start to the very end," he said.

"There was a seven-minute patch in the third quarter where we played reasonably footy after getting a bit of a wind-up at half-time."

As they have done too frequently this season, Geelong started badly - the tackle count was 10-0 in the Magpies' favour during the first term.

"They were sensational and sides have done it in the last three or four weeks," Thompson said.

"That's something we really need to overcome because they come at us, they tackle us and they bore in, they try and unsettle us.

"(If) we let teams keep doing it and let teams win first quarters of footy (against us), then sides will continue to do it all year and I'm not sure whether we can actually take it all year.

"At some point, we've actually got to give it back and that's what we're looking forward to doing."

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