Tom Hawkins should shout Harry Taylor lunch. Or at the very least  a beer,  or whatever it is that AFL footballers drink these days.
At the opening bounce Taylor lined up as Geelong's second tall forward, and within a couple of minutes found himself in a suburban houseblock of open space, 55 metres from goal. Instead of having a running ping at goal, he unselfishly chipped a 25-metre kick to Hawkins, who led into the pocket ahead of his opponent, Liam Jones.
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Cats demolish Carlton
Tom Hawkins was a standout as the Cats moved to second on the ladder.
The big Cats spearhead calmly converted  with a left-foot snap, and gained a handy confidence boost.Â
Within a couple of minutes Taylor was redeployed in the backline, where the Cats looked a little stretched for height against Levi Casboult, Charlie Curnow and second-gamer Harry McKay. But Taylor had made his most important contribution to the forward line for the night.
Hawkins, who began the season superbly with 28 goals in his first eight matches, has struggled for form in recent weeks, but  worked his way back towards his  best.
There were still a few scratchy moments: at least four times in the first half he admonished himself after spilling fairly straightforward marks, but he gradually began to impose himself on the match: he won a free kick and goal by tackling David Cunningham after a poor kick-in, he kicked goals marking on the lead and snapping around the corner, and he passed one off to third-gamer Wylie Buzza for a goal. By the last quarter he was streaming forward to meet the ball and clunking his marks.
Meanwhile Taylor was part of canny and composed backline – along with the likes of Andrew Mackie, Tom Stewart and Zac Tuohy  – who provided the Cats with relentless  drive out of defence.
In reality, the Cats controlled the match right from the outset.
From the opening bounce Geelong looked like a  fighter who had sized up his foe and decided he could just throw haymakers and not be too worried about blocking whatever counter-punches came back.Â
The Cats players rolled the dice in the opening quarter, happy to get numbers to the contest and run ahead of the ball, even though it at times left them exposed and undermanned on the rebound.
It meant that the vast bulk of the play was in Geelong's forward half, with a 22-6 inside 50 count by quarter time. Geelong's 19-point lead at the first change could easily have been double that had they  converted more efficiently from their 12 scoring shots.
Ruckman Zac Smith gave his midfielders first use of the ball at the centre bounces, and although usual suspects Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield were influential, they were not at their dominant best.
Instead the Cats received strong contributions from Mitch Duncan, Scott Selwood and Sam Menegola.
Buzza was also handy filling the second ruckman role in the absence of the injured Mark Blicavs. He took a turn as Geelong's second key target alongside Hawkins, as did resting midfielder Dangerfield, but it was small forwards Nakia Cockatoo and Jordan Murdoch who chipped in with handy goals.
On a dark night for Carlton there were, nevertheless, glimpses of brightness.
Casboult, Curnow and McKay all had moments, enough to suggest the Blues may yet develop a forward line that is difficult to contain. Which seems a contrary statement considering that Carlton continue to struggle to score. They are the lowest-scoring team this season, averaging just over 70 points a game, and have not scored 100 points in a game since the middle of last season.
But a handful of promising key-position players and some handy outside runners doesn't cut it against seasoned teams such as Geelong.Â
Bryce Gibbs, Marc Murphy , Dale Thomas and even Kade Simpson produced spasmodic performances, while Matthew Kreuzer was beaten early and missed the latter part of the game injured.
Maybe it is just a long season catching up with a young team.