ONE year ago, Harry Taylor wanted to be playing at an AFL club. But playing in front 86,179 people? At the MCG on a Friday night? For the reigning premier, in what lived up to its hype as the biggest game of the year?

"I still can't really believe it. This time last year I would have been one of the two million people sitting down at home to watch Friday night footy on the TV," said Taylor, after his Geelong side survived several heart-in-mouth moments to beat Hawthorn by 11 points.

"I come from Geraldton and there's only about 35,000 people who live there, so to think that the crowd here was twice the population of my home town is pretty amazing. And playing for East Fremantle, we used to get 2000 people there at the most.

"It was a terrific experience tonight just to run through the banner.

"I really put an emphasis on looking around, just to know where the benches are, where the scoreboards are and get a feel for the whole environment.

"After that, I pretty much try to shut it out. I never really hear individual voices and the crowd noise was like one big blur. I really tried to block it out and just concentrate on the game, on what we were all out there to do."

His opponent made sure he maintained focus. In his 13th AFL match — having been drafted as a 21-year-old last November — Taylor was pitted against Jarryd Roughead and did a good job, restricting the 54-goal forward to two goals, six kicks and nine marks.

As expected, this game was filled with good match-ups. After spending the first few minutes beside Andrew Mackie, Lance Franklin had issues with Matthew Scarlett, as well as his unpredictable left foot, while Max Rooke limited Luke Hodge.

The match was also filled with good players; it was difficult to pick out someone who actually played poorly. Xavier Ellis is coming along in a hurry, and his cool head and clean disposal (despite one panicked handpass in the goal square which cost his side an early goal) were important to Hawthorn.

Who was better — Joel Selwood, Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey or Sam Mitchell? It was hard to say, while Corey Enright set up his side time and time again moving across and through half-back.

Cyril Rioli has been running around on tired legs in the past few weeks, but well and truly had his groove back. It was like he was thinking a few seconds ahead of everyone else on occasions; he made some great decisions under pressure and he finished the job with pinpoint skills, throwing in a third-quarter speccy for good measure.

Geelong moved a few goals ahead early and was still two up at half-time. But Hawthorn kept up the pressure — the Cats played on a lot, often into trouble, and little mistakes started to cost either side in a significant way.

The Hawks grabbed a two-point lead 34 seconds into the final term, when Mark Williams goaled, but Bartel snapped the Cats back in front a few minutes later.

Rioli stripped Rooke of the ball to set up a Franklin goal with seven minutes left and there was still a goal in it when, with 3½ minutes left, Luke Hodge squared the ball into the centre square, almost straight into the arms of Ryan Gamble.

Gamble hesitated, then handballed to the passing Tom Lonergan, whose kick found Steve Johnson, whose goal proved the sealer.

While he kept Roughead reasonably quiet, Taylor did not exactly relax. "I'm finding out about a lot of different players the more games I play, and he sacrificed a lot of his game to help Buddy tonight, I thought. He's a very team-oriented player," he said.

"I'm lucky I've got some very level-headed teammates around me, and I'm finding the more I play, the more poise I feel I have out there. Every week, if I play four quarters, that's 120 minutes of football that you're continually adding up and experiencing.

"I feel like I'm starting to sum up situations better and make better decisions now, and I'm lucky to have come up into such a great side. I couldn't have asked to have come to a better place."