WITH Geelong enjoying a bye in round eight, star defender Harry Taylor will spend much of the coming week sunning himself on the Gold Coast.

"I need to replenish my vitamin D stocks, because they've been a bit low the last couple of weeks," Taylor said with a chuckle after the Cats defeated Richmond by five points at the MCG on Sunday.

The two-time All Australian certainly earned the right to a bit of downtime by producing a masterful display against the Tigers.

During the first half, Taylor completely outclassed struggling Richmond key forward Ty Vickery.

And when it looked like the Cats might be overrun by their unfancied opponent during the second half, he came to the fore.

At times, Taylor seemed oblivious to the wet and windy conditions. Of the 10 contested marks that were taken during the match, he took half of them.

Compare that to the Tigers' tally of just two contested marks for the game.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was moved to describe Taylor's contribution to the Cats' win as "just extraordinary".
Added Hardwick: "He is an outstanding player."

Nevertheless, Taylor found himself under a lot of pressure when Richmond grabbed the ascendancy during the third quarter.

"They just basically played with a lot of freedom," he said. "When you're a defender and you're isolated in about 150 metres of space, it's not a good feeling."

As to why Geelong seemed unable to stop Richmond's run at times, Taylor said: "I think we just went away from that real team care for each other, particularly around the ball.

"They managed to get some clearances going their way and put some scoreboard pressure on us."

But the Cats were able to get the job done and improve their record to 6-1.

"We haven't played well the last two weeks, but to get the four points today was really important for us," Taylor said.

"Luckily, some of our key guys got up and lifted for us when they needed to.

"We'll got onto our mini-break and be happy with our form, but we're certainly not content yet.

"It's important that we reset and hit the ground running for what's going to be a big three weeks after that break."

Twitter: @AFL_AdamMcNicol http://afl.to/adammcnicol