Dismal Bombers in disarray as Magpies fly Collingwood have shown they're not a spent force in this year's premiership calculations with a 79 point drubbing of Essendon. Magpies forward Travis Cloke marks the ball against Jake Carlisle of the Bombers during Collingwood's big win at the MCG. AFTER successive thumpings from its most bitter rivals, a season of scandal is catching up with Essendon. Its premiership aspirations now appear in disarray. A week after they were trounced by Hawthorn by 56 points at Etihad Stadium, the Bombers were completely outplayed by a dominant Collingwood that won by 79 points in wintry conditions at the MCG. The defeat, which is a 125-point turnaround from the Anzac Day meeting between the two sides in April, saw the Bombers slip from the top four for only the second time this season, a fact detrimental to their September hopes. Only two sides have reached the preliminary finals from outside the top four this century, though Essendon's finishing position may be moot pending the findings of ASADA's probe into the "pharmacological experiment" at Windy Hill last year. Exacerbating another hefty loss is a hamstring injury suffered by Courtenay Dempsey that could oust him for the remainder of the home and away season, while Brendon Goddard will be looked at by the match review panel today for a second-term stoush with Harry O'Brien that spilled over into a spiteful wrestle after the half-time siren. But while coach James Hird contends his side has been below par for the past month and failed to "get into the contest or get dirty enough" yesterday, he denied it was as a result of mental stress caused by the prolonged investigation by the anti-doping body. We have played some really good football but our last two weeks haven't been great. We will back up next week and play the West Coast Eagles and play well. Obviously there will be suggestions (that Essendon has hit the wall) but we are very confident that our boys are in a pretty good head space and they will keep playing some pretty good football. While Jobe Watson, who was booed every time he touched the ball, gathered 31 touches in his return from a broken collarbone, precious few others could claim to have rebounded strongly from the thrashing a week ago. It is a different matter for the Magpies, who produced their best performance of the season to cement a spot in September. The enormity of the win, which came on the back of a frenetic approach to tackling and winning the contested ball, saw it seize sixth sport from Richmond. The Magpies will get a truer test of their premiership aspirations against Sydney, which was dominant in their last meeting earlier this year, at ANZ Stadium next Saturday night. But, on its form yesterday, Collingwood will approach the match with confidence. After conceding the opening point of the match, the Magpies were never headed, with a dominant five goal to zero opening term setting the tone. Coach Nathan Buckley rated it the benchmark effort this year. "We have given ourselves and our supporters a taste of what we are capable of," he said. We draw a line on the rest of our season now. We can look at what we have or haven't done or may or may not have achieved ... but it is time for us to stop talking about what we are capable of and just start displaying it. We see tonight as the beginning of that. Our expectations are high internally but we need to back up the talk with performances and tonight was a good start. The star midfield quartet of Scott Pendlebury, Dayne Beams, Dane Swan and Luke Ball were dominant through the midfield and O'Brien showed great dash out of defence. If Travis Cloke or Ben Reid, who shared eight goals, did not mark the ball, they at least put it in the path of smaller Magpies waiting the shark each contest. After opening with a five goal to zero quarter, the Magpies never relented from then on. A couple of early goals to Essendon in the third term was as close as the Bombers came to having any semblance of control, but Reid was able to nullify that brief spurt when too solid for veteran Dustin Fletcher. The return of Lachie Keeffe, who played soundly in defence in his third game back from a knee reconstruction, has enabled Collingwood the luxury of starting Reid forward, something that is proving beneficial to Cloke as well.