If Collingwood needed a template to cause an upset over unbeaten Geelong in Saturday night's clash at the MCG, it would not have to look much further back than to a game played between the two teams five years ago this month.

The Round 9, 2008 match would become known as "the tackle game" - and for a very good reason.

The Magpies produced one of the most disciplined, pressure-laden performances in recent memory, giving the Cats little oxygen around the ground and laying 85 tackles over four quarters. Mick Malthouse's team set the scene with a frenetic first half with 55 tackles, which was more than Geelong would make on the night (49).

At the time it would be the Magpies' second highest tackle count since Champion Data started compiling stats in 1999, even if it has been relegated in pure stats terms to 15th in the club's history now.

Every player in black and white had at least one tackle. Tarkyn Lockyer had nine. Scott Burns, in his one and only year as skipper, had seven, as did Rhyce Shaw, Dale Thomas (in his 50th game) and Sharrod Wellingham (in his third game).

It was a remarkable effort from start to finish, bookended with big tackles on Geelong full-back Matt Scarlett.

From almost the beginning of the match - when 20-year-old Scott Pendlebury made a desperate lunge to stop Scarlett at half-back - to the last moment of the match - when Paul Medhurst wrapped the defender up and finished off with his third goal after the final siren - it was almost the complete performance from Collingwood.

It would be the forerunner to the sort of relentless forward press that would sweep many members of this team to a premiership two and a bit years later.

What made it even more memorable was the fact that so few people saw it coming on that Friday night in May 2008.

Collingwood had not been given much hope of beating Geelong that night, despite the fact that it had lost by only less than a kick in the 2007 preliminary final before the Cats beat Port Adelaide by a record Grand Final margin a week later.

After all, the Magpies' form at the start of 2008 had been patchy, much as it has been this season.

They sat 4-4 leading into the game with wins over Fremantle, Richmond, Essendon and St Kilda, but losses to Brisbane, Carlton, North Melbourne and Hawthorn had shown more than a few fragilities emerge.

In contrast, Geelong had won the first eight games to start the 2008 season, at an average winning margin of 35 points, hadn't lost since Round 21 the previous year and was a short-priced favourite to chase back-to-back flags in 2008.

Collingwood captain Scott Burns was typically honest in his pre-game assessment of where his seventh-place team was at heading into this game, when he suggested: "We are nowhere near the top four teams."

``Last week (beating St Kilda) was hopefully a little bit of a stepping stone for us to really gain some momentum in this middle part of the season. (But we've got) a fair bit of ground to make up."

In his preview - a match in which Collingwood welcomed back Josh Fraser from injury and Geelong lost Paul Chapman as a late withdrawal - Dermott Brereton was insistent about the sort of pressure the Magpies needed to beat the Cats.

"The Magpies will need to remain constantly competitive on the scoreboard. If they allow a break to open up, the Cats will take the risk and play the game on their terms," Brereton wrote.

"But through playing hard and committed, even swollen numbers around the footy, and trusting back men to see out a full game when left one-out against talented opponents, Collingwood has a chance if it is emotionally committed to the task."

The Magpies were all that - and more - almost from the time the umpire slammed the Sherrin into the MCG turf.

That's how it panned out. The first 10 tackles came from Collingwood players. That set the scene for what was to follow.

There was Pendlebury on Scarlett. Leon Davis ran down Joel Corey. Wellingham clung onto Gary Ablett. Heath Shaw stopped Cameron Ling and then David Wojcinski.

Heath Shaw would recall: "Our tackling and our pressure was really good and that's what we talked about before the game - we wanted to put pressure on them and force them into mistakes.

"(Geelong) like to run the ball from the backline and our forwards put the pressure on their run and carry (brand of football) which made it easier for our back men.

"Kicks were coming into (the Cats' forward line) high, coming under pressure rather than the free-flowing run they get."

The first six minutes elapsed without a goal. Then Collingwood piled on three goals in the next six minutes.

It started with a Leon Davis six-pointer, followed by a Heath Shaw scramble near the goal square and then a Ben Johnson signature goal, wheeling around from the boundary line on his left foot.

At that moment - the 12-minute-mark of the first term - Collingwood led by 19 points.

Geelong kicked the next two goals - through Travis Varcoe and Wojcinski - and by time-on it looked as if natural order was about to be restored. But the Cats wouldn't score for the rest of the term.

Collingwood's fourth goal started with a tumbling kick out of defence by Nathan Brown, in his ninth game, that went to Thomas in the centre of the ground. He handed it off to Dane Swan (with bare white arms showing no outward signs of tattoos yet) who gave off to O'Bree. Then he gave it to Fraser who sent it deep into attack where 21-year-old Travis Cloke marked and goaled.

Cloke followed it up with another after some fine work from Rhyce Shaw.

When Alan Didak slotted a goal from 50m with a minute left to play in the first term - the margin was out to 26 points.

Anthony Rocca played the role of dragging Scarlett out of the play as much as possible. Scarlett's pathway through the central corridor of the MCG was blocked off, and he was forced to chase far and wide for any space.

"It was important Anthony played the role and the forwards generally played where we wanted them to play," Malthouse said. "`That put a little bit of pressure back on to Geelong. But that's useless if you can't win the footy."

And the pressure and tackling zeal continued unabated in the second term. There were two great examples.

Firstly, Steve Johnson - who briefly toyed with a career at Collingwood before a negative medical report stopped it - zig-zagged his way past players. Then Davis, with some help from Marty Clarke, stopped him cold.

And Lockyer succeeded in making a desperate attempt to stop young Cat Ryan Gamble from breaking loose.

Rocca kicked the opening goal of the second term, at the three-minute-mark and when Paul Medhurst added another five minutes later, the difference was 39 points.

Clarke followed on after from a goal to Ablett off the back of the hard work of one of his teammates. Cameron Ling looked set to run the ball out of the backline, but was run down by Swan. It allowed Clarke to gather the ball and finish off with a goal.

Further goals to Cloke (after a strong mark) and Fraser closed out the first half for Collingwood.

As the two teams walked off the MCG, Channel Seven's Bruce McAvaney summed it up when he said: "There is still a long way to go ... but it is a big lead." The difference was 49 points, but no one was getting carried away just yet.

That much was obvious when Geelong kicked the first three goals of the second half.  Gamble, Ablett and Cameron Mooney scored those in the first four minutes.

Even Didak, on his way to three Brownlow Medal votes that night, admitted there were a few anxious moments.

"I was a bit nervous when they got three in a row ... a team like that could easily come back after half time being ten goals down," he said. "(But) the pressure and intensity to get back in the game, and the steadiness amongst the players was unbelievable.

"We knew if we played four quarters of hard, tough footy, that we'd be a chance. I have never seen us play that well together." The difference was all of a sudden back to 33 points.

But it was false hope for the Cats. In the next 52 minutes, Geelong would only kick one more goal - to Tom Hawkins at the 16-minute-mark of the final term when the game was long gone.

In a marking duel with Scarlett, Didak somehow managed to outpoint him and drag in a mark just before the 10-minute-mark. And in typical 'Dids' theatrics, he gave a little twirl of his index finger as he slotted the ball through the middle.

Cloke followed it with another one minute later. But he would have been thanking Thomas for some fine work around the boundary line which found Medhurst before he gave it off to the young Magpie forward who was giving Harry Taylor a night to forget in what was only his seventh game - and in his first loss.

Goals to Davis, Lockyer and Pendlebury bloated the three-quarter-time margin out to 63 points.

But even if the game could no longer be lost, the Magpies were not sated.

Medhurst outpointed Tom Harley in a duel to kick the first goal of the final term only 74 seconds in and then Chris Bryan added six minutes later.

The penultimate goal came from Thomas in the most audacious, inventive passage of the night. He revived memories of Peter Daicos' legendary banana goal from the wrong pocket in the 1990 qualifying final against West Coast.

Some in the crowd who were sitting near Daicos that night asked him for his response, and he said: ``The kid has obviously been watching his videos."

Collingwood's 20th goal came after the final siren when Medhurst steered the ball home to the delight of Magpie fans, putting the full stop on a memorable might with an 86-point win over the Cats.

Medhurst said: "If you beat the reigning premiers by 80-odd points you have to be doing something right."

"If you let them (Geelong) steady they hit their targets nine times out of 10. We just thought if we could pressure their good ball-users. That was our focus and they would turn it over and we would hope for the best."

Malthouse was rapt with the tackle count.

``I can't remember ever being above 85, so it's certainly one of the highest I can remember,'' Malthouse said.

``Against the top sides like that, you have to be (ferocious with tackling). You just can't live with them skill-wise.''

Past Collingwood captain and future Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley was in the Channel Seven commentary box that night. He said: "It's amazing how much difference four quarters of good footy can make."

And McAvaney wondered if Geelong's vulnerabilities that night might be a sign that others might be catching them.

He said: "Maybe this is the night that the Geelong domination comes to an end. It doesn't mean they won't go top again this year, but it's unrealistic to think they are just going to keep winning and winning and winning."

The Cats would finish top in 2008, but would lose to Hawthorn in the Grand Final. But they would keep on winning and winning for the most part - with the 2009 and 2011 premierships as rewards.

Geelong is undefeated so far this season and that alone represents a massive challenge for Collingwood this Saturday night just as it did five years ago.