RHYS Stanley admits his career at St Kilda was "running into a bit of a wall" and says his move to Geelong at the end of 2014 has helped re-ignite his passion for the game.
The 25-year-old played one of the best games of his 81-game career against the Western Bulldogs on Friday night, kicking a personal best five goals to propel the Cats to a 25-point win.
Stanley spent the majority of his time up forward, hauling in seven marks (five contested) to go with 16 disposals as his height and speed constantly became an issue for an under-sized Dogs defence.
The big man was traded to Geelong from the Saints alongside pick 60 for pick No.21 in the 2014 NAB AFL Draft, as the Cats' dearth of ruck options came into focus.
"I feel the environment change has sparked my love for footy," Stanley told AFL.com.au.
"To be able to come to a side and restart and refresh the mind, I feel like that's good for a player at times when you feel like you're stagnant and you feel like you're running into a bit of a wall.
"It's good to freshen things and there's a great bunch of blokes down here so I'm loving my time down here."
Not everything has gone smoothly for Stanley at the Cattery, with a serious season-ending foot injury in round 11 last season a major setback in his development.
Only a month ago Stanley found himself out of the team, and out-of-form, as the Cats trialled the Zac Smith and Mitch Clark ruck/forward combination.
But the athletic big man bounced back and looms as a significant factor come September.
With Geelong still searching for the right combination in the ruck and in attack, Cats coach Chris Scott said he would continue to take a 'horses for courses' approach.
"We'll stay open-minded with it. We've gone into a few games this year where we've intended to play one of them (Stanley or Smith) in the ruck a little bit more and circumstances have dictated that we change that," Scott said.
"It's nice to have that flexibility. Rhys has been threatening to mark the ball inside forward 50 like that a fair bit this year so it was good to see him get some reward."
