Geelong beat Collingwood by five points in a classic AFL preliminary final, putting them within one win of their first premiership in 44 years.

The Magpies were again magnificent, but the Cats held on in a nail-biting finish at the MCG to win 13.14 (92) to 13.9 (87).

Geelong will play the winner of Saturday's Port Adelaide-Kangaroos preliminary final at AAMI Stadium in next Saturday's grand final.

It was the fourth final this year where the margin was less than a kick at full-time, including Collingwood's extra-time win in the epic semi-final a week ago against West Coast.

Geelong ruckman Brad Ottens was best afield and defenders James Clement and Martin Clarke were superb for Collingwood.

The bumper crowd of 98,002 was the biggest at the ground since the redevelopment was completed early last year.

Collingwood repeatedly rallied and came back from 18 points down in the last term - the biggest gap of the night - to trail by five points.

But Gary Ablett's brilliance steadied the Cats 19 minutes into the quarter.

The Brownlow Medal favourite and first-time All-Australian roved the ball from a stoppage, broke a tackle and snapped a stunning goal on the run to give his team a vital break.

Ablett had 31 disposals in another awesome game.

But just when the Cats looked home, Collingwood rallied one last time.

Paul Medhurst goaled from a controversial free kick to Anthony Rocca, who could not take the shot because he had hurt his leg.

There were 57 seconds left after Medhurst's goal, but Collingwood were unable to win the ball from the centre bounce.

Geelong managed to hold up the ball on Collingwood's half-forward line when the siren sounded.

Collingwood's bravery was admirable and they nearly caused one of the biggest finals upsets in AFL history against the overwhelming premiership favourites.

Geelong forward Steve Johnson kicked three goals, but had to go off in the last term with a shoulder injury.

The Cats, who were well off their best, blew a chance at the start of the second half to potentially kill off the game.

Ottens missed an easy set shot from only 30m out at the start of the third term and this was the first of three behinds.

The Cats would kick a total of seven behinds for the term.

A goal to Leon Davis turned the game's momentum again, but James Kelly finally kicked accurately on the run to give the Cats an eight-point break.

Travis Cloke brought the margin back to two points with his first goal of the game and, just as he had done in the second term, Medhurst then put Collingwood ahead at 17 minutes to heap the pressure on the Cats.

With less than a minute left in the third quarter, Cameron Mooney forced a deliberate out of bounds on the full and snapped accurately from the boundary.

It meant Geelong regained the five-point break they had at half-time.

The Cats had looked threatening just before the main break, but the 'Pies kicked the last two goals of the half.

Geelong had led by 17 points late in the second term.

But last week's semi-final hero Alan Didak kicked a freakish goal, where he tapped the ball out of mid-air onto his right foot and snapped it over his left shoulder from close range.

Four minutes later, Sean Rusling marked and goaled to bring the Magpies to within less than a goal.

Collingwood had played two finals, including a trip to Perth before Friday night, while the Cats had the week off after their 106-point canter over the Kangaroos.

Ottens took full advantage of Collingwood's late withdrawal - for the second week in a row, the Magpies' No.1 ruckman Josh Fraser had to pull out of the side.

Another big duel that went Geelong's way was full-back Matthew Scarlett on Rocca, who did not kick a goal.

There was a massive build up to this all-Victorian preliminary final, the first since 2001.

The members area was closed 40 minutes before the first bounce.

Collingwood kicked the first goal of the game thanks to a Scott Burns snap in the second minute but the next three went to Geelong as they took a threatening 13-point lead.

The gap was 11 points at the first change and the Magpies piled the pressure on Geelong at the start of the second term to lead by three points.

Just when it looked like Collingwood might be rattling the Cats, the favourites kicked the next three goals.

Cats coach Mark Thompson said he congratulated his players immediately on making the grand final, but also told them to be professional about the coming week.

Thompson admitted he felt some players might have been complacent ahead of the game.

He also pointed to a missed shot on goal by Mooney with 14 minutes left as a sign that the Cats had celebrated the win prematurely.

"I felt all week, I think a lot of our boys had played the game - the problem with having the week off and coming off the big win against the Kangaroos is that there's a possible chance that some players would think they would win this game before they'd actually won it," he said.

"It happened a bit - at training we dropped off a bit."

The flipside of that for Thompson was that Friday night was a "huge experience" for the team.

"I'm expecting us to be a lot better next week with our approach to the game.

"We're not having to sit around for 13 days waiting to play, everything is just going to be a rush."

Thompson added he singled out several players post-match, including Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey, Scarlett and Darren Milburn, for their last-term heroics.

The Cats are confident Johnson (shoulder), Mooney (back) and Milburn (corked calf) will be fit for the grand final.

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse reacted angrily post-match to an earlier television news report regarding captain Nathan Buckley.

The report suggested Buckley had decided to retire at the end of this season.

"That is definitely wrong - that is a total fabrication, I can assure you of that," Malthouse said.

"I've just spoken to his wife....Tania had spoken to him and they were mystified, totally mystified, by a totally false report."

Thompson and Malthouse looked drained post-match and the Cats coach admitted it was a "stressful" night.

Malthouse pointed out that regardless of how well Collingwood had played in the last three weeks, half of last year's finalists did not make the top eight this season.

"We tried as hard as we could - I'm bitterly disappointed.....I'm very proud of my boys, but it doesn't win you the game," he said.

"We clawed and bit and scratched and wanted to get out there, but we came up just that one kick short."

Malthouse also described this season as potentially the start of a new generation for the powerful club.

He added it was a "brave act" for Fraser to rule himself out this morning.

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