AFL season 2016: No quarter given as Collingwood thrash Essendon on Anzac Day

COLLINGWOOD 8.4 14.6 19.8 22.10 (142) ESSENDON 1.1 2.2 7.4 11.7 (73)
Goals: Collingwood: A Fasolo 4, S Sidebottom 4, J Blair 3, D Moore 2, J Howe 2, L Greenwood 2, A Oxley, J de Goey, J Smith, M Cox, T Adams. Essendon: O Fantasia 2, S Grimley 2, A Cooney, J Daniher, J Kelly, K Langford, M Brown, M Stokes, Z Merrett.
BEST: Collingwood: Sidebottom, Pendlebury, Fasolo, de Goey, Adams, Treloar. Essendon: Hartley, Kelly, Fantasia, Zaharakis, Goddard.
Injuries: Collingwood: T Varcoe (hamstring).
Reports: Collingwood: L Greenwood (Collingwood) for striking B Goddard (Essendon) in the third quarter.
Umpires: Justin Schmitt, Scott Jeffery, Robert O’Gorman.
Official Crowd: 85,082 at MCG.

There had been a sense of dread about the sort of contest which might be served up to a huge live and lounge-room audience on Anzac Day almost from the moment Essendon lost half their best team in mid-January.

Steele Sidebottom of the Magpies celebrates a goal with teammates. Photo: Getty Images

That, however, had changed significantly by the time the occasion itself dawned. It had been Collingwood's apparent deep trough as much as some spirited showings from the Bombers which had awakened renewed hope for a game to match the moment.

Naïve optimism, as it turned out. And a balloon of hope punctured very early indeed. Unless, obviously, you are of the black-and-white persuasion.

Because it took fully five minutes to realise that this was a very different Collingwood to the side which had laboured through the first month of the season for one lucky win.

Mason Cox of the Magpies celebrates after his first kick in his first match yielded Collingwood's first goal. Photo: Getty Images

The intensity palpably absent from their starts, even in that game, was there in spades, no Essendon player given a moment's peace when they had the ball. Which, admittedly, wasn't all that often, because the Pies dominated in every area.

Mason Cox wrote the fairytale for the day, a mark and goal with his first touch at senior level, within two minutes of the start. Steele Sidebottom, sorely missed for the fortnight he was suspended, was everywhere.

By the time of his first goal, five minutes in, thing were already ominous indeed. By the time of Sidebottom's third before quarter-time, Collingwood led by 34 points. And when the first change did arrive, the game was effectively over.

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti of the Bombers takes Taylor Adams of the Magpies to ground. Photo: Getty Images

The Magpies had rattled on 8.4 to just 1.1 to lead by 45 points. That was a far bigger gap than existed between most of the other statistics, and was testament to how well Collingwood used the football. This was the version of the Pies all that pre-season hype had been about.

Led by a skipper in Scott Pendlebury who finally had some teammates jump on board with him, Collingwood tackled and contested, then ran and spread with equal enthusiasm, a balance sorely out of kilter over the first four rounds now put right.

Besides Sidebottom running amok, the Pies had Jordan de Goey setting up scoring opportunities, Taylor Adams and Jack Crisp back in the sort of touch they had in 2015, and Adam Treloar exerting a greater influence the longer it went.

Jeremy Howe and Alex Fasolo celebrate in the rooms after the game. Photo: Getty Images

Essendon were like a rabbit in the spotlights, hesitant, fumbly, completely overwhelmed, and after four rounds of at least decent effort, leaving their opponents in acres of space cheerfully accepted.

David Zaharakis ran tirelessly, as he has all season, Michael Hartley took a strong defensive mark which was the first act in the Bombers' first goal to Kyle Langford, and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, even he restrained by his recent standards, managed to nail Adams in a tackle. But that essentially was it for the entire first half.

The Bombers' first bit of fluent play came nearly 10 minutes into the second quarter, when Conor McKenna hit Mitch Brown on the chest, the first time all game they'd managed to transfer the ball from end to end for a score.

But that was anything but a game-changer. More a mere hiccup in an on-going picnic for the Pies.

Jarryd Blair, also busy, converted a free kick. Jeremy Howe, showing his first positive signs in black-and-white, slotted the next with Blair again heavily involved. Darcy Moore and Alex Fasolo roamed the forward line menacingly, the latter's goal just on half-time the first of four he'd kick for the day, besides setting up almost as many.

Which spoke volumes as well. Fasolo hasn't always been seen as the most selfless player going around, but his attitude was reflective of a Collingwood more determined to work for each other than at any time since the pre-season served up a healthy slice of apparent fool's gold.

A 76-point margin at half-time made a 100-point-plus belting seem almost inevitable. So some small credits to Essendon for actually squaring the third term and booting five goals where they had managed two for an entire half.

Hartley showed again why he'll have a decent AFL shelf life, good in the contest, sensible with his exits from the defensive arc. James Kelly ended up with the most disposals for his team. Orazio Fantasia continues to get better for the Bombers, and after a slowish start, Darcy Parish had his moments, too.

But it needs to be remembered that for three quarters of this game, there was no contest as such. When the heat really was on, it was Collingwood, and their key men, who were on fire, and Essendon the scorched earth which remained afterwards.

Not great for the occasion, of course, but pretty timely for a club under siege.