Harry Taylor spoke to Cats TV after his successful foray up forward against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.

Taylor said the influence of Matthew Scarlett on the Bulldogs backline was obvious, the playing style of his former teammate already shining through.

“I certainly noticed a few of his tricks in the way they were playing."

“Which in a way was great to see because they are obviously listening to a champion player and trying to use some of the brilliant things he did over the years.

“The good thing was I know a lot of the tricks as well because he taught me those so I was fortunate enough to know how to beat them at times.

“When you’ve got Matty Scarlett as a mentor it’s pretty special.”

After the late withdrawal of Tom Hawkins, Taylor was comfortable with his transition forward and reasonably happy with his performance.

“I’d practiced a lot over the pre-season as a forward so I didn’t find it too difficult."

“I’ve also played on a lot of great forwards over the years so you do learn a few tricks along the way.”

Jimmy Bartel’s presence down back in Taylor’s absence was very impressive, with 24 disposals at 100% efficiency.

“He always uses the ball well no matter where he plays, very smart when he does use the ball and a terrific contested player so half-back suits him quite well.”

In a game where rotations off the bench were scarce due to injuries to Jared Rivers and Josh Caddy before half-time, Taylor said it was a great fighting effort from the team to last out the game.

“We just need to play a bit more consistent, that’s the main thing."

“Our consistency over the duration of the game hasn’t been perfect yet, that’s something we’re really striving to get and hopefully we can start that against Richmond next week.”