PORT ADELAIDE coach Mark Williams claims Geelong is the competition benchmark.
Williams is well placed to comment, having played the premiers twice in the first 12 rounds, and said his team was helpless to stop the class and workrate of the Cats in their 59-point win over his side at Skilled Stadium on Sunday.
"That would be, without doubt, the best team we've played this year, by a long, long shot," he said after Geelong added the big win to their nine-point victory over the Power in round one.
"They beat us in most areas of the game, and in the end, we had to try and shut the game down.
"It was nice to think we could keep at it, and win the last quarter, which gave us some sort of consolation, but they were way too good for us."
The Power were unable to put any scoreboard pressure on the Cats, but Williams defended his forwards, saying the problem was a lack of supply.
"None of our runners could get the ball – Peter (Burgoyne) and Shaun (Burgoyne) and (David) Rodan and Danyle Pearce couldn't get any free ball, and I thought that they won the hit-outs early that set up the game.
"If you look at the inside 50s, you'd note that we only went in 37 times or something, so the forwards are going to be under massive pressure.
"It was a poor game all round."
The Power won the last term, something Williams was happy about after a series of late fade-outs from his side.
"Their start after half-time really blew us away, and in the end we wanted to see if we could give some other players opportunities.
“I thought (Alipate) Carlile kept going and working hard against (Cameron) Mooney, I thought (Robbie) Gray in the centre square showed some really good signs and that was good for us.
"And the big challenge of the last quarter was 'let's outscore them, let's get something in regards to not capitulating and just falling over'.
"It was away from home, it's a tough task, and it was good to think that they could do that."