Collingwood delivered the perfect farewell gift to departing coach Nathan Buckley and left Melbourne counterpart Simon Goodwin looking for improvement from his AFL ladder leaders after the Pies scored a rousing 17-point win at the SCG.
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Down by four points at quarter-time, Collingwood lead by 16 points and five points at halftime and three quarter time respectively before sealing the 11.14 (80) to 9.9 (63) win after scoring three goals to one in the final term.
Collingwood recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this season, while It was the Demons' second loss and lowest score of the campaign.
The Pies tenacity around the ground and their determination at the contest bustled Melbourne out of their stride.
"It reminds you of why you're involved in footy and to see all of the ingredients come together to put a performance like that together is really a great way to finish the day and obviously it's a bit more significant than that for me," Buckley said.
"But to finish on that note, I can only say thank you to the players.
"There was some super efforts by a lot of players, I saw some young guys stand up and really own the moment and take more responsibility.
"As a coach it's everything you want to see, so I was so rapt with that."
Brody Mihocek added three majors but it was Collingwood's tenacity around the ground and their determination at the contest that bustled Melbourne out of their stride.
Down back, Collingwood shackled most of Melbourne's weapons with Isaac Quaynor keeping livewire forward Kysaiah Pickett goalless as young tall Luke Jackson was the only Demon to kick two goals.
"We certainly didn't play the way that we would like to play and that's full credit to Collingwood, I thought they were outstanding, they played a great game," Goodwin said.
''They were better than us in a lot of areas especially areas that we really value.
"We had more supply but we were really poor execution forward of centre, which gave them great looks with the ball in hand."
The Pies looked up for the fight from the first bounce but both sides struggled to hit the scoreboard In the first quarter, Melbourne registering 2.2 to Collingwood's 1.4.
Collingwood kicked 5.4 to 2.2 in second quarter to lead by 16 at halftime and restricted Melbourne to 28 points, their lowest first half score of the campaign.
Jordan De Goey was one of the key drivers of the Pies' second-quarter surge, setting up a couple of set shot goals for Mihocek with precise kicks into the forward 50 metres.
Prime movers Max Gawn and Christian Petracca injected some more urgency into the Demons, who kicked the first three goals of the third quarter.
Gawn marked and goaled and set up Petracca before Bayley Fritsch added another as the Demons edged in front.
Collingwood steadied and kicked two of the last three goals in the quarter to lead by five points at the final change.
They maintained the momentum in the final quarter with goals to Cameron and captain Scott Pendlebury helping stretch the lead to 20 as Melbourne managed just one more major.
Goodwin wasn't sure if any emotion surrounding Buckley's departure was a factor in the game.
"Whether that was their emotion, they were certainly tougher and harder in the scrimmages than what we were," Goodwin said.
"But we want to play in those game where there is emotion, where there is a big stage and be able to perform and today we didn't."
Australian Associated Press
