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Sanderson suggested turning “Operation Stop Cameron” into a job share, using two players who can match the Cats’ forward in one aspect if not the other.

“I don’t mind the double team: running mobile player up the ground and the bigger stronger body inside 50,” Sanderson said.

However, he conceded that handing over responsibility to a teammate for an individual charging back towards goal often worked better in theory than in practice.

“[You can] let them off the leash a bit when they are up the ground, and then you have to get the right match up to re-engage when they get back inside the forward 50,” Sanderson said.

“That is always hard to do. It’s not an easy transition … the handover is really quite a challenge, particularly with the way these guys run now.”

To key defenders, such handovers must be like standing in a river and attempting to stop running water, particularly with Geelong’s fleet-footed and aerobically fit forwards Gryan Miers, Tyson Stengle and Brad Close adding to the chaos while Tom Hawkins drops anchor inside 50.

It means Cameron doesn’t need to worry about winning one-on-one contests (he hasn’t won outright any of his 14 one-on-one contests this year). Rather, the “dart from Dartmoor” is top three in the competition for yielding a goal when he is targeted inside the spacious forward 50 that Geelong creates.

Thirteen times his good friend and golfing partner Close has hit him up in the past two seasons in passages that led to Cameron scoring.

Richmond great Matthew Richardson thrilled crowds in 2008 when he kicked 48 goals playing as a tall wingman. He played a more defined role than Cameron, who still plays mainly as a forward, but his ability to confuse opponents was similar.

“On the wing I found the advantage for me was I was getting the normal wingman on me, but then if I pushed forward and if they didn’t swap over I was getting a mismatch going forward,” Richardson said.

Team defences were less complicated in Richo’s era, yet Richardson says the athleticism of the Cats’ forward is challenging the modern way of defending.

“He gets up the ground [faces] team defence, and then he just waltzes back through and no-one actually tries to pick him up,” Richardson said. “Well they might, but no one seems to be doing it.”

Richardson says Cameron’s method poses a massive problem for those clubs who don’t want to disrupt the way they implement team defence.

Sanderson agrees Cameron, who plays the game with flair, is forcing clubs to consider double-teaming tactics that are less than ideal when it comes to team defence in an attempt to curb his influence.

“That player is what we call ‘off the board’. [You are] playing team defence with 17 [players] and you have got one or two players who are delegated to one [opponent],” Sanderson said.

Not many clubs have a realistic option to stop him on their list. Anyone with Cameron’s attributes are generally forwards anyway. An obvious candidate is Mark Blicavs. There is only one problem: the pair are Geelong teammates.

“You need the prototype player of themselves to play on them,” Sanderson said.

One AFL assistant coach, who preferred to remain anonymous when discussing tactical matters, said an athletic player must oppose Cameron as he rarely took pack marks anyway. He has taken just six contested marks in seven games.

Most of his goals are from marks in space, either leading, or running back into that space created in his absence. He has kicked 11 of his 19 goals from marks this season with the remainder from snaps. None have come via free kicks, which is no surprise as he has only received three this season.

While conceding his evasive skills, the assistant coach said opponents often let Cameron go on to his trusty left foot too easily while he should not be allowed to blow down the ground as untouched as an empty pie wrapper. He needs to be buffeted and harassed every step he takes: disrupted, distracted, detonated.