An AFL-laden Collingwood emphatically dismantled a depleted Geelong VFL side by 151 points at Skilled Stadium on Saturday in the most lop-sided VFL match Geelong has ever played.

The 26.18 (174) to 3.5 (23) shellacking was in many ways a farcical match that deteriorated into a glorified training run between a Collingwood AFL side and a Geelong VFL reserves side.

Collingwood, managing the workload of a dozen of its first-pick players after a month of travel, took to the field with a tick under 1000 matches of AFL experience, including nine players from last year’s preliminary final squad.

The Cats, again lining up with a list of kids vying for a place on the 21-man VFL list, had no VFL premiership players, no players with AFL experience and a combined total of less than 50 VFL matches.

In a nutshell, the experienced Collingwood on-ball contingent found boundless latitude through the midfield and were able to run basically uninhibited all afternoon.

The tone of the afternoon was set in concrete just minutes into the lop-sided contest by a rampaging Collingwood side showing little regard for its young and somewhat star-struck opposition.

The Magpies were simply irresistible as Tarkyn Lockyer, Heath Shaw, Shane O’Bree and Alan Didak burned holes through the Cats midfield to leave a trail of destruction in their wake.

Travis Cloke looked every part the burgeoning centre-half-prodigy he has been earmarked to be, brushing aside his revolving door opponents to kick four goals and take 17 marks.

In a real football paradox, VFL coach Leigh Tudor admitted he and his players were eagerly anticipating the match all week, despite knowing the match would pan out to a comprehensive annihilation.

He said the players, most of which ran around with kids their age last year, were driven by the desire to go one-on-one against some of the best AFL players in the country.

“They were really keen. The best thing about it was they were really excited with so many Collingwood players playing and they really wanted to play on the stars and they wanted to test themselves against the best,” Tudor said.

“That was really pleasing that they embraced the challenge and wanted to challenge themselves against the better players.

“It was fantastic to watch not just our AFL listed players and seeing Dawson Simpson go up against Josh Fraser, but it’s very competitive to get a spot on our VFL list and a few guys put their hands up today, which was great.”

And with the pre-match prediction having come to a stark fruition, Tudor said he harboured the same level of excitement about reviewing the match on Monday.

“Players like Lockyer, Didak, Shaw, all these guys, are quality AFL players and that was thing today for Adam Donohue to play a fair bit on Didak and a fair bit on Lockyer,” he said.

“It’s going to be outstanding to go back and watch the video with him during the week and work out what we can do better. It’s a real learning curb for these young players.

“And that’s the best thing about it, all our six AFL listed players that played were really keen to play on the best players and now we’ll go back and see on what we can improve on.”

Tudor reiterated the club’s stance on blooding untried players in the first three practice matches of the season, remaining adamant the ugly blowouts were not a bleak forecast for the team’s quest for back-to-back premierships.

Geelong will continue to field a healthy abundance of untried players over the next two weeks to give players vying for a place on the VFL list a chance to impress before the lists are finalised mid-March.

“To be honest too, it’s been very tough for the players in these first two weeks because we’ve been trying out a lot of different kids,” he said.

“So, in the next couple of weeks we’ll start to have a bit of structure and we’ll get our lists in place.

“It has been really tough going and a lot of guys didn’t know each other and stuff like that, but that’s just how we use our first two practice matches to trial new players we haven’t seen play and those that have trained with us over the year.”

“But we know we’re going to have a very strong VFL list, most definitely, we’re really looking forward to the season.”

With longevity the priority, captain James Byrne is likely to err of the side of caution and not return until at least the final scheduled practice match, giving the club’s younger players a chance to impress.

The 2007 JJ Liston Medallist spearheads the list of noticeable VFL absentees, including VFL quartet Matthew Firman, Jay Cheep, Chris Urie and Jack Hollmer.

None are injured and will be back for the final two practice matches, against North Ballarat and Collingwood respectively.

The Cats now take on Werribee at Skilled Stadium this Saturday from 1pm.