The initial battle was drawn but Collingwood emphatically won the war, slaughtering St Kilda by 56 points in the AFL grand final replay at the MCG on Saturday.

The Magpies learned their lesson from last week's remarkable stalemate, making the most of a 27-point lead at half-time as they cruised to a 16.12 (108) to 7.10 (52) victory and a first AFL premiership since 1990.

The Magpies completely massacred the overwhelmed Saints with their much-vaunted pressure, keeping them goalless in the opening term and then piling on three unanswered goals after the long break to effectively end the contest.

Holding a 41-point advantage at the final change, the Magpies put a final nail in the coffin with two goals in the first four minutes of the last term that had club president Eddie McGuire in tears and the famous "Collingwood" chant reverberating around the ground.

The Pies finished with a trademark high 11 different goal kickers in front of 93,853 fans for the one-sided sequel, a notable dip from last week's attendance of 100,016.

Collingwood now has 15 AFL/VFL flags to its name, just one behind fierce rivals Essendon and Carlton.

Magpies midfielder Scott Pendlebury was a deserved Norm Smith Medal winner with 29 touches and 11 tackles, rebounding from a relatively quiet display last Saturday where he had just five kicks.

"That's the best feeling ever," he told Channel Seven.

"We knew that what we do works, even last week a lot of people said we sort of blew our chances."

"We were so confident today we would get those chances and take full advantage, which we did."

"We needed 25 role players and that's exactly what we got."

Pendlebury beat out 19-year-old team-mate Steele Sidebottom, who capped off a great year by showing his cool head under pressure.

The 57-year-old Malthouse is now the oldest coach to win a flag with one year still to go as mentor of his young crop.

With former captain and assistant coach Nathan Buckley to take over after that, Collingwood's premiership window is wide open with 10 of its grand final-winning players having played less than 50 games and 15 of its players younger than 25.

It was St Kilda's second straight grand final defeat, losing to Geelong by 12 points last year, and the fifth time in a row the club has walked away from the season's decider unsuccessful since its one and only premiership in 1966.

Brent Macaffer proved to be the wildcard for the Pies, stepping up with two important first-half goals.

Luke Ball was also vital with his 25 touches playing against a side he lost the 2009 grand final with and at times negating good mate and Norm Smith medallist Lenny Hayes.

"It's a weird feeling to be honest, I'm so happy for the Collingwood footy club and the supporters and Mick, they gave me a chance," he said.

"On the same side I do know how they are feeling, I have some good mates over there and I feel sorry for them."

Heath Shaw and Magpies skipper Nick Maxwell were also key running off half-back for the second straight week, making the most of St Kilda's crippling inability to find a target inside 50.

Collingwood's long list of stars were influential in periods, with the AFL's MVP Dane Swan showing his class with a tremendous third quarter after being held to just five touches to half time.

Swan finished with 26 touches, one less than Dale Thomas who turned in a great performance for the second week running, while ruckman Darren Jolly dominated new opponent Ben McEvoy.

Jolly is the side's only dual premiership-winner after being part of Sydney's flag-winning side in 2005.

Brendon Goddard, close to best on the ground last week, was tellingly St Kilda's only leading light with 29 disposals, 19 of which came in the opening two quarters.

Saints captain Nick Riewoldt managed just five marks and kicked one behind in another poor grand final display, outplayed by Pies defender Nathan Brown.

Riewoldt's point was a shocking gaffe in the first term, smothered by a chasing Shaw on the goal line in what turned about to be fitting representation of St Kilda's disappointing day.

Early dominance

The replay lived up to its name early on with Collingwood again lining up the first goal inside the opening 20 seconds, only for the ball to be taken away from Travis Cloke after an off-the-ball free-kick.

That was about all that resembled last week's thrilling affair, as the relentless Magpies showed why they have been the best team all season.

St Kilda, which arguably let slip its best chance to topple the highly fancied Pies last week, was ultimately hurt by a team struggling with niggles and the loss of first-choice ruckman Michael Gardiner to injury.

The Magpies dominated early proceedings and despite unanswered goals to the recalled Tyson Goldsack, Ben Johnson and Macaffer there was again a sense they had not taken full advantage.

The Saints moved to address their issues on half-forward by again moving Sam Gilbert up the field after quarter-time, the defender having an immediate impact.

But like Collingwood last week it was the Saints who missed their opportunities, Gilbert kicking three straight behinds while his side hit the post on three separate occasion over the course of the match.

At the other end Alan Didak ran nearly 100 metres to boot the Magpies' fourth in a clear demonstration of Collingwood's superior pace and running power.

Goddard finally broke the shackles with St Kilda's first goal 15 minutes into the second term to bring the margin back to 13 points.

But a costly turnover by Brett Peake for Macaffer's second goal and another major to Jolly shortly after gave Collingwood all the running going into the second half.

That momentum was well and truly seized when Chris Dawes, Sharrod Wellingham and Swan pushed the score out to 61-15 on the back of Collingwood's tremendous tackling pressure in the forward half.

Didak added a memorable six-pointer and accompanying jig in the shadows of the final break before the last term turned into a procession, despite the spirited Saints courageously fighting on.

Collingwood: 16.12 (108) - Didak 2, B Macaffer 2, C Dawes 2, S Sidebottom 2, S Wellingham 2, B Johnson, D Jolly, D Swan, D Thomas, H O'Brien, T Goldsack.

St Kilda: 7.10 (52) - S Milne 2, B Goddard, J Koschitzke, L Hayes, N Dal Santo, S Gilbert.