GEELONG defender Lachie Henderson has gone the extra mile off field to fit in at his new club and it is paying dividends on game day, according to teammate Harry Taylor. 

Henderson is destined to be overlooked when it comes to the Cats' recruit of the year, but he was recognised internally on Saturday night for another superb performance against the Western Bulldogs. 

Match report: Clinical Cats publish Dogs

For the third straight week Henderson was a key player in a win against a fellow premiership contender, and Taylor said it was no accident that the 26-year-old was fitting in like a veteran Cat.  

"He's been outstanding in building the relationships off the field, which is a really big part of footy," Taylor said.

"It's really important that you understand your teammates and how they like to think, what their interests are away from footy, all those little things. 

"That might help you at a crucial time in a game and he's put himself out there to do that, so I think that's really helped him play great footy this year.

"He's fitted in really well and done a lot of work to make that happen." 

Henderson, who has spoken about the calming influence of moving to the Surf Coast after being traded from Carlton, has been one of the Cats' steadiest hands the past three weeks. 

He helped contain the Greater Western Sydney talls in round 11, held North’s Ben Brown goalless last week and on Saturday night mixed it against tall and small opponents but mostly kept Jack Redpath to one goal.    

Coach Chris Scott said he was pleased with how his backline recruit had handled himself when out of position and matched up on more nimble opponents. 

"They throw some different looks at you the Bulldogs, different types of players, guys that can mark it that are really agile at ground level as well," Scott said. 

"We thought he was just really strong, out of position a few times and really held up well.

"We think Lachie has improved significantly from what we saw through the pre-season and it’s impressive to us that those guys have some real cohesion and look like they understand each other’s game.

"The reality is they haven’t really played much together so as a group they’re going well."