JOSH Caddy knew the onus was on him to perform.

The skipper was suspended.

It was a must-win game for the Cats.

The job of winning the ball at stoppages would fall to him.

In discussions with teammates during the week, the 22-year-old resolved to step up and, in his simple terms, get the job done.

He did, flourishing with the added responsibility to gather 37 disposals, including 23 contested possessions, seven tackles, 12 clearances and a goal.

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"I don't like to read the media too much, but there's been questions asked about, 'Who else is there apart from Joel?'," Caddy said.

"One game doesn't answer everything, but it was good to get the win without him."

Caddy has performed well in the past.

His performance after coming on as a sub in the 2013 preliminary final was brilliant, but rarely has he had the weight so heavily on his shoulders and rarely has he had the chance to emerge from the heavy focus on Joel Selwood and strut his stuff.

Mitch Duncan's return helped. Duncan is an exceptional player who gives run on the outside when the ball hunters such as Caddy go deep into the morass to extract the football.

But it was Caddy who shaped the game, his confidence growing from the moment he stepped off the bench and found the ball heading his way.

"I thought to myself, 'Maybe things are gonna go my way a little bit today'," Caddy said.

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That hope turned into reality when he had 13 disposals in the first quarter, and didn't let up as he managed to find it 10 times in the last when the game was up for grabs.

"I had a little bit of a sense that I'd had a bit more of the ball than I could remember, but I didn't specifically know the numbers," Caddy said.

He knew how he managed to rack up the numbers though.

"Our aim was to get to as many contests [and] at least equalise the numbers or outnumber. We know if we've got the numbers each player is gonna be able to win his fair share of contests," Caddy said.

"It's not actually the fact that we can't win contests. It was more our spread away to get to more contests. So we just set ourselves to work hard all day and grind away and get to contests."

It was a team effort, inspired by Selwood's absence.

It means fewer people will ask the question, who else but Joel?

And no-one will repeat the question asked of Caddy as to whether the midfielders felt they were letting their skipper down.

"I don't think we've been letting him down," Caddy said.

"It's not us and then Joel. It's a midfield group and we're in this together. We just want to improve and get better, attack this back end of the year. We've set some objectives, and we nailed one today."