If the challenge of tackling one of the most dominant ruckman of the decade was not confronting enough, losing your partner in crime moments before the bounce must certainly make life more difficult.

When news came through that Geelong’s Zac Smith would be a late withdrawal from the Cats’ season opener against Fremantle, Rhys Stanley was left to face Aaron Sandliands and his 211cm, 122kg frame alone.

Utility Mark Blicavs did provide some relief, but it was up to Stanley to limit the influence of the Dockers’ big man – and thankfully, he did exactly that.

“It was pleasing,” the 26-year-old told reporters on Tuesday.

“There’s a few times he still gets that spike out and it frustrates you a little bit but he’s a big man and I thought we fought hard against him all day. His impact, while it was there, probably wasn’t as it could have been.”

The statistics don’t exactly tell the story here. Geelong lost the hit outs 63-18 and lost the clearances 49-33.

Around the ground, however, Stanley reeled in five marks to Sandliands’ one, whilst his ability to at least compete at stoppages enabled the likes of Selwood, Dangerfield and Duncan to win the ball themselves, or close in on their opponents and ultimately win the midfield battle

“They’ve [Fremantle] got a super-strong midfield but so do we,” Stanley said.

“We had the plan going in to obviously neutralise that aspect of their game and I think the plan was executed quite well, forcing them into a tight space and then being able to work off that.”

“I think the boys played it very well in there.”

Zac Smith may return this week to support Stanley, but with or without him round two sees the Cats shape up against North Melbourne and the Roos’ own star ruckman, Todd Goldstein.

“Todd is a great ruckman. To come up against their side will be another great challenge and we’ll throw everything at them,” Stanley said.

“[We’ll] try and replicate a little bit of what we did on the weekend but he is a whole different beast altogether. The way he jumps and moves around the ground is another aspect to ruckmen that we’ve got to be able to overcome.”

The Cats take on North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium from 1:10pm on Sunday afternoon.