A dominant second half against Collingwood on Saturday night has earned a revitalised Geelong the right to contest its third consecutive AFL Grand Final.

The Cats will go into next Saturday's premiership decider against flag favourites St Kilda bursting with confidence and in great shape coming off their crushing 73-point preliminary-final victory - 17.18 (120) to 6.11 (47).

Dissatisfied with his team's winning performances in its past two prelims, coach Mark Thompson's beefed-up preparation produced the emphatic victory he was looking for.

There was little sign of the excruciating pressure that rival counterpart Mick Malthouse had spoken of in the lead-up to the match as the Cats set themselves up with a four-goal burst in the third-quarter - the premiership quarter - that built a 34-point buffer at the final change.

Everything after that, as they say in the classics, was just icing on the cake, and the Cats lavished six goals worth of icing in the final term without reply from the hapless Pies.

Paul Chapman was best-afield with five goals from 26 telling possessions for the Cats, Steve Johnson was busy and productive in his first hitout since hip surgery late last month, and Gary Ablett and Joel Corey gathered an equal match-high 34 disposals.

While that quartet headlined a list of contributors that ran 22-deep, Collingwood, in contrast, was laden with passengers.

In his 100th AFL game, Travis Cloke had nothing to celebrate, Leon Davis was totally anonymous as he has been all September and fellow All Australian Dane Swan, who was suspected of carrying a strained buttock into the match, had Cameron Ling up his clacker all night.

The honest and durable Shane O'Bree was the only Collingwood midfielder to stand up and have a crack.

Dayne Beams started for the Pies in place of Scott Pendlebury whose withdrawal from the selected line-up just 12 days after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured fibula was a shock to no-one.

Collingwood started brilliantly with the first seven inside-50s of the match from which they managed to convert twice in conditions rendered greasy by a band of rain that settled over Jolimont for 90 minutes leading up to the opening bounce.

Ben Johnson capitalised on a spill from tentative Harry Taylor to snare the opening goal inside the first minute, and Harry O'Brien dobbed the Pies' second with a long bomb from broken play.

It wasn't as if the Cats lacked composure, they were simply overwhelmed by an outfit that