Geelong has fine-tuned its preparations for next week’s grand final rematch against Coburg with a comfortable 20-point victory over Collingwood at MC Labour Park on Saturday night.

Fielding a regulation VFL team, the Cats broke the game open to lead by seven goals midway through the second quarter, running out 11-10-76 to 8-8-56 winners.

Geelong, playing its first match on the oval since last year’s grand final win, was simply dominant in the opening half and kicked the first seven goals of the match to blow the Pies out of the water.

Much like they routed Coburg on the grand stage last year, it appeared little had changed as they Cats surged forward with regularity and looked in ominous early-season touch.

But then the Pies started to find their game and launched a spirited second half resurgence to get to within two goals early into the last quarter.

Coach Leigh Tudor said despite the strong first half, the side’s lackluster second half meant there was plenty to work on before next week’s season-opener against the Tigers.

“I thought in the first half we played some really good footy,” Tudor said.

“In the second half we got a little bit selfish and probably started worrying about our own games a bit, which is something we don’t want.

“We just want to keep playing that Geelong way as much as we can, so I thought in the second half we went away from that a little bit, so that’s something we’ve just got to work on a little bit during the week.”

Tudor said room for improvement would be a constant threat this year with so many young players.

“With so many first year players it’s going to be that way all year, really. There’s room for improvement every week,” he said.

“There’s going to be blokes trying to put themselves in dangerous positions and us putting them into positions where we want to see them.

“Young blokes are probably going to make a few mistakes, but it was good today, while they made some mistakes today, they did some really good things as well.”