Patrick Dangerfield is not sure whether the Saturday night match against North Melbourne was the best of his career, saying he preferred not to focus on individual performances.

But did Geelong's star recruit know, however, that this game was something special?

"It felt like the ball was bouncing the right way," he conceded.

Dangerfield was dazzling at Etihad Stadium.

Dominant in the centre and Geelong's forward half, his performance was enough to have Cats fans wondering how they ever did without him, and Adelaide fans mourning the one who got away.

The statistics only begin to tell the story – he finished with 48 disposals and two goals, but it was his instinct for the game that really counted.

Injured teammate Mitch Clark tweeted "Danger taking the piss tonight", and there are few better ways for describing the 26-year-old's game, running rings around his opposition.

Dangerfield said he had not been particularly pleased with his performances over the past few weeks.

"I've sort of been working away behind the scenes, trying to improve my own game and I think a bit of tonight is just that work starting to pay off," he said.

Dangerfield formed a dynamic partnership with skipper Joel Selwood, who picked up 38 possessions of his own.

He said halfway through the season he was starting to develop a helpful on-field chemistry with the club captain and it was one of the best games they had played together all season.

"We're starting to build that continuity with each other and understand the way each other plays," Dangerfield said.

Geelong went into half-time 10 points down, but slammed on five goals in the third quarter before North kicked their first.

Dangerfield said Geelong had tried to take on North just when they were likely to tear further ahead.

"Every opposition we play we research as well as we possibly can to prepare as best we can, to understand their strengths and weaknesses," he said.

"They're really good at the start of third quarters, they get a run on and can score really quickly and they've done it historically for 2016.

"We knew that was going to be really important that first 10 minutes [of the third] and I think we countered them really well."

The Cats will face another test on the weekend, when they play the Western Bulldogs, who beat Port Adelaide in a three-point thriller in South Australia on Saturday.