It took until the second half on Easter Monday but a stunning 15 goal to one blitz after the main break saw the Cats record an 82-point victory over the Hawks for their first win of the season.
CATS v HAWKS Full match coverage and stats
The Hawks kicked the first three goals of the game and should have led by more than nine points at half-time, but it was a complete annihilation from there.
Geelong kicked 10 goals to no score in a third quarter onslaught, before finishing with 16 of the final 17 goals to defeat the Hawks 19.13 (127) to 6.9 (45) in front of 65,335 people.
Chris Scott demanded a response after half-time and got a dramatic one from a side that featured 19 premiership players. The Cats recorded 15 scoring shots from 22 inside 50s to just one Hawthorn entry in the third quarter, dismantling and demoralising a young Hawthorn outfit that had a whiff of a second straight win but was reminded of exactly where it is at.
Jeremy Cameron was the star of the show from start to finish, putting Hawthorn skipper James Sicily and the Hawks to the sword in another best-on-ground display to start 2023, slotting seven goals from 22 disposals and nine marks in another box-office performance that finished with an accidental collision with a boundary umpire after wheeling to the pocket to celebrate his final goal.
The 2019 Coleman medallist has now overtaken Carlton star Charlie Curnow (16 goals) at the top of the Coleman Medal leaderboard after four rounds with 18 on the board.
After losses to Collingwood, Carlton and Gold Coast to start 2023, the Cats hadn't won a game since they won premiership No.10 on the final Saturday of last September and had almost dug themselves a hole that was going to put them a mile behind.
But just when they were in trouble, they flicked the switch.
Hawthorn had extinguished tanking talk when it beat North Melbourne in Launceston last weekend and carried that momentum for 60 minutes of football, before the youngest and least experienced list in the AFL was taught a lesson after half-time.
Fresh from signing a four-year extension last week, Will Day burst out of the opening centre bounce and found Luke Breust for the first goal inside 60 seconds. The Hawks had the first three before Geelong arrived.
But in a game of two vastly different halves, the Hawks showed significant growth across the first two quarters, before the growing pains of a drastic rebuild brought Sam Mitchell's men back to earth in the second half.
Dual premiership midfielder Mitch Duncan showed why his absence across the first three rounds was so telling, collecting 31 disposals, 14 marks and 439 metres gained in his first game of the season, after overcoming the calf injury that derailed his pre-season.
While it is going to take more than just a 14-goal win over a side many expect to finish in the bottom four to prove Geelong is back in business, plenty of the Cats' best players found form on a wet and cold autumn afternoon at the MCG. Patrick Dangerfield, Tom Hawkins and Tyson Stengle all influential.
The Cats now head to South Australia to face West Coast at the Adelaide Oval next Sunday.
GEELONG 3.2 4.3 14.8 19.13 (127)
HAWTHORN 3.3 5.6 5.6 6.9 (45)
GOALS
Geelong: Cameron 7, O.Henry 2, Hawkins 2, Close 2, Stengle 2, O'Connor, Holmes, Rohan, Dangerfield
Hawthorn: Breust 3, Greene 2, Amon
BEST
Geelong: Cameron, Duncan, Holmes, Dangerfield, Stewart, Miers
Hawthorn: Breust, Day, Ward, Impey
INJURIES
Geelong: Blicavs (ribs), Bews (concussion)
Hawthorn: Nash (head)
SUBSTITUTES
Geelong: Ollie Henry (replaced Jed Bews at half-time)
Hawthorn: Chad Wingard (replaced Tyler Brockman in third quarter)
Crowd: 65,335 at the MCG
