This wasn't the first time the Western Bulldogs had gone into a game against Geelong hoping to make an important statement. And hardly the first time it had failed to do so.

In fact, Saturday night's very efficient 57-point win by Geelong was the Cats' ninth in a row over the Doggies, a period spanning nearly seven years. It also gave Geelong top spot on the ladder for the first time this season. Now, that was a statement.

And one it was very clear the Cats were intent on making as early as possible.

Geelong had a rich vein of form by the end of last week's win over North Melbourne. A week later, it still flowed freely.

The Cats were far sharper with the ball than their opponents, evidenced by the first goal of the game when Bulldog Jack Redpath marked strongly and promptly gave the ball back kicking inboard to the centre.

Josh Caddy was the grateful recipient of that largesse, and a penetrating kick from Patrick Dangerfield found Daniel Menzel, who converted appropriately. But Geelong's pressure was telling, the Cats having quickly racked up an astonishing 12-1 tackle advantage.

Soon enough, Menzel had his and the Cats' second. Dangerfield, too, was simply continuing last week's outstanding performance, and he booted the third. Skipper Joel Selwood snapped the fourth, and then came another costly turnover, this time from the experienced Matthew Boyd, and Josh Caddy banged through Geelong's fifth.

The Bulldogs were making too many errors, but what hardly helped was the failure of a tribe of key players to get their hands on the pill much at all.

Deep into the first term, Geelong had won seven stoppages in a row. By then, pivotal Bulldogs like Mitch Wallis, Jake Stringer, Tom Liberatore and Lachie Hunter had between them compiled just nine possessions.

That was always going to put the Bulldogs on the back foot. But what was a 28-point deficit at the first change, cut down to only 22 when Liam Picken booted the first of the second term, was going to blow out a good deal more.

The Doggies did, for a little period at the start of that term, appear to be a bit more organised and just as desperate as their opponent. But it didn't last long. And again, they managed to shoot themselves in the foot.

Another turnover, this one by Stringer, allowed Menzel to kick his third. Dangerfield yet again set up a scoring opportunity, his skipper the beneficiary. And if the difference in the efficiency of either team wasn't obvious enough to the eye, the statistics told the tale, the Cats with 11 marks inside 50 to just one.

By now, Geelong appeared to be almost toying with their opponent, a series of handballs exchanged between Lincoln McCarthy, Tom Hawkins and Caddy allowing Steven Motlop to stroll into an open goal.

Jordan Murdoch made it 42 points, before Motlop's second from another Bulldog turnover was making this alleged bumper clash a bit more than humiliating for the side trailing.

Again, the Dogs kicked the first goal of a quarter immediately after half-time. And again, it wasn't followed up with much of substance, Josh Dunkley, Lachie Hunter and Stringer all missing gettable shots.

When Hawkins made it 46 points the difference again with 15 minutes of the third term elapsed, the result was a foregone conclusion.

Suddenly, for the first time all night, the Bulldogs found a bit of spark. Jack Redpath dobbed just the third goal his side had managed all game. But in a six-minute period, the Bulldogs managed to double their score.

Lin Jong had the next after a strong mark. And then it was Geelong's turn to turn it over, Mitch Duncan's clearing kick landing in the arms of Mitch Wallis, who banged it back over his head.

Things threatened to get really interesting when Liam Picken ran along the boundary line and snapped an impossible goal to make it 22 points. Well, for just a second, anyway, until it became clear the ball had already gone out of bounds and a rather anti-climactic boundary throw-in ensued.

And, as a contest, that, essentially, was about that, the last quarter a cakewalk in which Geelong added another five goals to zip.

Conversion has been an issue much of this season for the Cats. That problem was pretty effectively laid to rest with a scoreline of 16.4, instead their opponent with the kicking yips and an ugly final toll of 5.13.

Uglier still for the Bulldogs, though, is the knowledge that this is one opponent against whom circumstances, coaches, and players may change, but somehow, sadly, the result never seems to.