Jamie Elliott booted five goals and the Daicos brothers ran riot as the Pies’ stars led Collingwood to a strong Anzac Day match victory over a spirited Essendon 107-66.

Elliott was unstoppable upfront, while Josh Daicos had 36 touches. His brother Nick was not far behind with 32 touches, 11 clearances and a goal.

Veterans Steele Sidebottom (36) and Scott Pendlebury (31) again rose to the occasion on the biggest annual AFL match outside of the grand final.

Sidebottom, who also had 15 clearances, was awarded the Anzac Day medal. He had 13 clearances by three-quarter time.

Appointed Collingwood’s youngest captain in 57 years as a replacement for the injured Darcy Moore, Nick Daicos and older brother Josh both turned it on in front of 92,044 fans at the MCG.

The Pies restricted Bombers forward Peter Wright to two goals, while Zach Merrett (25 disposals) was Essendon’s leading ball-getter.

Collingwood got off to hot start with fill-in captain Nick Daicos booting the opening goal with a long range bomb from beyond the 50-metre arc.

The Pies led 22-7 at quartertime and 41-33 at the main break. The Bombers then fought back to briefly take the lead in the third quarter before normal business resumed and Collingwood went to the last break up 75-51.

Elliott put the game beyond doubt with with just under five minutes to go by kicking his fifth goal.

After falling behind early in the third quarter, Collingwood kicked 10 of the next 12 goals to ensure they would again finish the round on top of the ladder following their sixth-straight win.

It was Collingwood’s fourth-straight Anzac Day win, but the result could come at a cost after key forward Daniel McStay was subbed off with a left knee issue.

McStay appeared to suffer a heavy knock in a marking contest in the third quarter to the same knee he had reconstructed at the end of 2023.

Elliott, who kicked a famous match-winner after-the-siren to beat Essendon in 2022, snared four goals in the second-half, including the sealer with 10 minutes remaining.

Collingwood stormed out of the blocks, with their 15-point lead at quarter-time belying their dominance across the ground.

The Magpies pushed their advantage to 27 points early in the second term, before Essendon slammed through six of the next seven goals to take the lead in the third quarter.

But the ladder-leaders lifted again with five of the next six goals to take a comfortable 24-point buffer into the final change.

Going into the game rank outsiders, Essendon had periods when they threatened to put themselves in position for an unlikely victory.

Sam Durham kicked two goals in a minute in the second quarter, while Zach Reid continued his breakout season with another outstanding performance down back.

Jack Crisp made it through his 244th consecutive match unscathed, setting him up to break the late Jim Stynes’ record for most VFL/AFL games in succession when Collingwood battle Geelong next Saturday night.

In an inconvenience for both teams in the second-half, power was off on the bench and communication up to the coach’s box was limited.

With AAP