The goals might not have been coming for Harry Taylor in the first two months of the AFL season, but the effort was never in question.
On Friday night, as Geelong stormed back from a nine-point deficit at three-quarter time to claim an 11th straight win over the Western Bulldogs, there was finally significant reward on the scoreboard for the swingman.
In a decorated, decade-long career, Taylor has made his name as a key defender with few peers when it comes to intercept marking.
But with the search continuing for another key forward to complement Tom Hawkins, coach Chris Scott turned to the 30-year-old and asked him to play a vastly different role.
A meagre return of two goals in the opening eight rounds would seem to suggest it wasn't working all that well.
The situation suddenly looks a whole lot rosier after Taylor booted five majors on Friday night at Simonds Stadium in the 16.8 (104) to 12.9 (81) win over the reigning premiers, who slipped to 5-4 and could well be outside the top eight by the end of the weekend.
"It's never really been about goals for me as a player," Taylor said.
"The coaches measure my game on a lot of other things.
"But when you're a forward you ultimately get measured by the public and the media on how well you are kicking goals, so to actually kick a few tonight was good reward for all the hard work I've been doing."
Taylor kicked three goals in the second term and another two in the last, while oddly failing to garner a single possession in either of the other two terms.
Scott agreed that the five-goal return was just reward for effort from a player who never gives less than his best.
"He's been doing the work and been a little bit below his lofty standards which if you go back and analyse it, makes a little bit of sense given he's played his whole career in virtually one position and there's been a significant change for him and a significant change in the personnel of our team," said Scott, after the Cats snapped a three-game losing streak.
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