On a day when Geelong racked up all kinds of beautiful numbers, mercurial forward Steve Johnson achieved perhaps the most astonishing ones of all.

The crowd favourite had a direct hand in no less than 16 of the 37 goals the Cats scored against hapless Melbourne at Skilled Stadium on Saturday.

He spent most of the first half setting up his teammates and most of the second kicking goals himself.

Johnson ended the day with seven goals and nine goal assists in a 34-possession master class that saw him claim best afield honours ahead of a host of worthy challengers including Joel Selwood (43 possessions), Joel Corey, Corey Enright and five-goal forwards Cameron Mooney and Tom Hawkins.

"It was a pretty complete performance," said Geelong coach Chris Scott after the 37.11 (233) to 7.5 (47) demolition job.

"When you look at the individuals, I'm sure you will all write that Steve Johnson was amazing - 34 touches and seven goals, that's amazing footy.

"But the way he defended and the way he played the role we asked him to play was absolutely first-class.

"Internally he will be rated so much more highly because of those defensive things, rather than the offensive things."

Mooney was the other talking point up-forward for the Cats.

Held goalless in his only other five games of what is almost certainly his last season, Mooney celebrated his recall from the VFL with five first-half majors, many of them set up by his two-time premiership teammate Johnson.

"To be honest it was only one step, a significant step, but still only the first step," said Scott.

"If Cam can play near his best he's going to be well and truly in our best 22 players.

"But it's about how he moves, whether he can sustain the level required at AFL level and how he pulls up during the week.

"We can't answer those questions yet."

The Cats have an embarrassment of attacking riches with leading goalkicker James Podsiadly likely to return nextweek against Gold Coast.

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