Press Conference

See what Cats coach, Chris Scott had to say following Geelong’s clash with St Kilda on Sunday afternoon

Scott on his initial takeaways from the game

We really respect what they can do.

Even when you scan their good players, they are spread all over the ground, especially their ball users and they looked dangerous at times.

I thought the game was never beyond doubt until very late, but it did feel like we had the game under control or being played the way we wanted to for most of it. Albeit they did look a bit more dangerous than we would have liked them to.

We thought there were big parts of our game that didn’t work particularly well today, and that would have been obvious to everyone.

A lot of the stuff was just execution when we had good looks, I think we missed some sitters in front of goal, it was more an execution thing than a structural thing. 

Scott on some positional changes

There was a little bit of a shift in personnel.

Humphries was a little bit more up the ground, I thought he was influential in that role which was pleasing for us.

De Koning coming back sort of changed that mix for us, it didn’t allow Jack Martin to play more in the forward half but we chose to do that, he was a recipient of some of that faster ball movement from the back half.

You sort of have to do it against the Saints, clearly they were backing in their guys to use the ball a bit more aggressively, when you did turn them over there was no point in going slowly. 

Scott on Ollie Dempsey’s 50th game

It has been a good 50 games.

The highlight reel is there already, I think there is going to be a few more in that respect.

The way he plays is important to us, I thought he was a real threat again today. Not always perfect, it was probably a bit reflective of our whole team, even guys that played well had some really good chances that you would expect them to finish that they didn’t.

I am far from sitting here thinking, what a great performance, we are flying, I thought there was still plenty to improve on.

Ollie is a very good player 50 games in, but he has got a lot of improvement left in him. 

Scott on Shaun Mannagh’s performance

He hasn’t slid under the radar for us, but we see him every week. He is a really important player.

I didn’t think he finished his work as well as he normally does, but he was still really, really effective.

There is probably a group of players that for a long period of time, we have highly valued like our high running forwards Close and Miers, and he has slotted really well into that group.

He is a fundamental part of the way we play, which is saying something because he hasn’t been on our list for that long. 

Scott on Tom Stewart’s injury

We think it’s fine.

I have said a few times in this forum that we have got a low tolerance these days, for keeping guys going when they can.

The question shouldn’t be can they keep going, the question is should they keep going and what does it mean for next week or the week after.

The strong suggestion is that he will be okay for next week, hopefully that is off the back of chopping him out a little bit earlier.Â