Form and ladder position often count for little when it comes to rivalry games in the Australian Football League, and those rivalries don’t get much bigger than Carlton versus Collingwood – the silver tails versus the working -class battlers. But top-of-the-table Collingwood thoroughly dispelled any such superstitions Saturday, handing out a 48 point walloping to the Blues, a margin that didn’t nearly reflect their dominance. Lead by unstoppable midfielder Dane Swan, the relentless run and carry of halfback Harry O’Brien and the mercurial brilliance of small forward Leon Davis – who booted three, the Pies had the match sealed by half way through the second quarter. To describe Carlton’s performance as utterly woeful would be to succumb to the fact that suitably negative adjectives for this purpose have not yet been invented in the English language. Their furious coach Brett Ratten said it was probably “the most embarrassed I’ve been of our group”.