Where to start after a staggering game of football?

The race for the 2011 premiership has been turned on it's head after Geelong's 96-point demolition of Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night. The Pies kicked the first four goals of the game, and from then on it was all Geelong, for whom it all clicked. Five goals to Daniel Menzel, 29 touches for James Kelly and any suggestion that back to back flags for the Pies would be a cakewalk, can now be put to bed.

To complicate matters, an ankle injury to Collingwood defender Chris Tarrant threatens to keep him out of next week's qualifying final against West Coast. He was drafted to the back line at the start of the year when Nathan Brown was lost for the season with a knee injury, next week it's Josh Kennedy, Nic Naitanui, Quinten Lynch and Mark LeCras that need to be dealt with.

It is the sort of footy that many believe the Cats will need to beat the Hawks next week - swift ball movement into the forward line and not give the Hawk back line time to set up.

Of course, the Hawks are under fire for resting eight good players from the trip to the Gold Coast on Saturday. The vision from the Collingwood rooms of Tarrant hobbling on his crutches, immediately justified what the Hawks have decided to do. Better for Buddy to be tucked up on the couch sipping a green tea with Kasia than risking injury or report in a meaningless game against the Suns.

In terms of what this result means for the premiership, it is hard to say. The Cats probably had more to play for after a few weeks of unimpressive results. There is probably more competition for spots in the Geelong side, so a few of the Cats had to go that bit harder and had that bit more to prove.

History tells us that the loss, even of that magnitude, will likely do Collingwood's prospects no harm. Of the last 10 AFL premiers, nine have lost a game either in the last three weeks. of the home and away season or the first week of the finals. If anything, the acid is now on the Hawks, who will almost certainly take an eight-match winning streak into the finals. Do they need to drop one?

It could be next week. They have lost six straight to the Cats - all close, but losses all the same - and would have been hoping for the Cats to have had a slightly harder hit-out than that and perhaps have a few blokes pull up a bit sore.

Collingwood has much on its plate. But as awful as the Magpies were against the Cats, a 20-2 record and record-breaking percentage for the season of 167 cannot be ignored. The Pies have been building for the finals for half a season and you wouldn't think one bad effort on the eve of the finals will entirely derail their campaign.