They have now beaten a good side as well as the poor. They have done it with two players down on the bench, including their captain. This is a team that plays without expectations, or with no mind for the expectations of others.

For Geelong, one week is an aberration. Two weeks is a rut. The Cats came to Etihad Stadium seeking a response to last week's blindside humbling, but found no answers.

What they encountered was a Carlton side that does not go away. The surprise team of the year, this was the Blues' best win of 2016, with captain Marc Murphy and Liam Sumner out of the game from early in the day. They finished the match with no fit player on the bench.

There was consequently a sense that with two players down the Cats would overrun the Blues but Carlton refused to buy into that mindset, where Geelong seemed quite prepared to embrace it as an inevitability. The comeback never properly came.

After an even first term when Geelong wasted shot after shot at goal to see the scores tied at the first change despite Geelong having nine shots at goal to Carlton's three, the Blues lifted the pressure and hassled the Cats, causing errors from Geelong who were beating beaten around the ball.

Bryce Gibbs lifted in Murphy's absence to shoulder the creative burden in the middle while Patrick Cripps gradually worked to overcome Mark Blicavs' tag (Blicavs didn't get a possession in the second half) and have an influence through the important middle terms.

Troublingly for Geelong, captain Joel Selwood (just three first term touches) was again subdued. Selwood plainly appears to be carrying a leg injury for he is not covering the ground, so once Ed Curnow worked him over at the stoppage, Curnow would roll off and stretch Selwood with run.

Carlton in the first term had been able to win the ball in the middle but could find nothing or no one other than Corey Enright when they tried to kick it inside 50. In the second term they began to lower their eyes, they drew free kicks and 50 metre penalties and they punished Geelong's first quarter wastefulness with a six-goal term.

The Cats emerged from the main break without any noticeable lift in urgency. Tom Hawkins began to wrestle rather than lead at the ball and they were still losing around the stoppages.

The first goal of the second half typified the difference in the teams. Billie Smedts was tackled into giving the ball up and then with intense pressure the ball eventually bubbled over to Dennis Armfield to allow the pacey Blue to outrun Darcy Lang in a race into the 50 and a long goal.

Armfield's pace had unsettled Geelong all day. As ever you have take the loose with the good with Armfield, the occasional turn over, but this day he was heavily in the positive side of the ledger.

Lachie Henderson was booed with every possession, which was fairly often. Seemingly Henderson's arrival at Carlton via Brisbane was forgotten, to say nothing of Dale Thomas' and Andrejs Everitt's clubs of origin.

Henderson was good but it was cleverness from Andrew Walker and an awareness of his former teammate's athleticism that saw him take Henderson up the ground in the last quarter turn him around and beat him in the run back towards goal, get the ball and run into open goal.

Moments later a Steven Motlop turnover saw Jed Lamb likewise hare back into space inside 50 to be able to easily picked out and convert for a five-goal lead.

Geelong finally challenged with nothing more to be lost and by attacking got the centre clearance, worked it forward to find Hawkins in the goal square. Unlike the first term when he presented well and missed two set shots, Hawkins could not miss this one. A moment later the Cats had the next centre clearance and Cory Gregson who was a bright figure most of the day snapped a ball that lobbed in to trim the margin to three goals.

Now the missing players sitting injured on the bench began to look telling. There was half a quarter to play and Carlton looked willing but les than able. Geelong looked fitter but uncertain still.

Paddy Dangerfield busy all day to be Geelong's best again tried to take the game on and lift the team but was unable. He had a bursting run earlier in hte term out of the centre clearance that might have delivered the team lifting goal - it was smothered off the boot.

They looked for him from a kick in late after Levi Casboult missed a goal and Cripps beat Dangerfield in the one on one contest. That he was then able to pass to Everitt who ran past three Geelong defenders who failed to chase was a comment on the Cats' day.

CARLTON 4.0 10.4 13.6 16.8 (104)

GEELONG 3.6 6.8 9.11 12.13 (85)

Goals: Carlton: A Everitt 4 D Armfield 3 B Gibbs 2 D Gorringe 2 A Walker E Curnow J Lamb L Casboult M Murphy. Geelong: C Gregson 2 C Guthrie 2 S Motlop 2 B Smedts C Enright J Bartel R Stanley T Hawkins Z Smith.

Best: Carlton: Gibbs, Docherty, Cripps, Curnow, Everitt, Kreuzer, Armfield, Simpson. Geelong: Enright, Bartel, Guthrie, Dangerfield, Henderson.

Umpires: Troy Pannell, Shane McInerney, Nicholas Foot.

Venue: Etihad Stadium.