Saturday, 17 August 2019:

JAMIE ELLIOTT of the Magpies runs with the ball during a Collingwood Magpies AFL training session at Holden Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

Collingwood's ruthless 66-point rout of Adelaide is a timely reminder of the powers of the AFL club, coach Nathan Buckley says.

Buckley's Magpies climbed into fourth spot on the ladder with a 17.12 (114) to 6.12 (48) crushing of the Crows at Adelaide Oval.

Collingwood will return to fifth place should Richmond beat West Coast on Sunday.

But regardless of that outcome, Buckley believes his club is priming for the finals.

"We're seeing the type of footy that we want to play more often," he said.

"That is always important to get that validation, the reminder for the players of what it feels like to be playing the way that you're capable of and to be able to impose that on an opposition.

"Clearly when the stakes get higher and the opposition becomes sharper, then it becomes a little bit more difficult to execute that.

"But I think we're in a pretty good space to be able to take those next steps."

Collingwood meet Essendon next Friday night in their last game before the finals, with Buckley rating key defender Darcy Moore a chance to return from a hamstring strain.

But he said electric forward Jordan de Goey (hamstring) was an unlikely starter, though certain to return for week one of the finals - when Jaiydn Stephenson will be available after serving his gambling suspension.

De Goey's attacking void was superbly filled on Saturday by Jamie Elliott, who kicked five goals against the hapless Crows.

Collingwood all but killed off ninth-placed Adelaide's finals chances - their fate rests with others after their biggest loss of the year.

The Crows must beat the Western Bulldogs next Sunday - but even that might not be enough to sneak into the eight.

"We came here with so much to play for and ... we weren't able to elevate to the level required," Crows coach Don Pyke said.

"We have got some searching to do in terms of looking at all components of our program."

Pyke's Crows didn't score a goal until 20 minutes into the second quarter and were 17 points down at halftime.

Adelaide then meekly surrendered as Collingwood booted six unanswered goals in just 22 minutes in the third quarter.

"We were able to impose our brand for the majority of the night," Buckley said.

"To come over to an away venue, (against) a team that were up and about and needing to win - to be able to handle it early and blunt that as the game went on was really encouraging."

AAP