New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nIt was a remarkable turnaround for a Geelong side that conceded 8.4 (54) in the opening term – their equal worst at GMHBA Stadium since 1983.<\/p>\n
But a Chris Scott spray at the first break inspired the epic fightback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t playing the way we wanted to play,\u201d Neale shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the word disgraceful was used.\u201d\ufeff<\/p>\n
Shaun Mannagh kicked three second quarter goals in a 10-minute burst before it was Neale who proved the hero after half time.<\/p>\n
Jack Martin then gave Geelong the final quarter lead \u2013 ending Freo\u2019s 101-minute hold on the match.<\/p>\n
Despite Patrick Dangerfield having a limited influence in his managed minutes, Max Holmes (35 disposals) and Bailey Smith (29 touches and a goal) stepped up.<\/p>\n
Docker Luke Jackson did everything he could to lift the visitors to finish with 27 disposals, 10 clearances, eight tackles, 22 hitouts and a goal, but it wasn\u2019t enough for a Freo side that simply stalled after quarter time.<\/p>\n
Chris Scott spray sparks comeback<\/p>\n
Whatever Chris Scott told his troops at quarter-time, it worked. <\/p>\n
The Cats turned around a 35-point deficit on Saturday afternoon in a truly gutsy comeback from the home side. <\/p>\n
In fact, the 52 points conceded in the first term marked the highest score Geelong has ever given up in a home opener at Kardinia Park.<\/p>\n
It was un-Geelong like. But nothing a good old fashioned coaches spray can\u2019t fix. <\/p>\n
Scott didn\u2019t hold back when the animated Cats coach went off at his fellow coaches, then players at the opening break in a fiery address.<\/p>\n
It sparked the desired response. <\/p>\n
Geelong banged on five goals in the second term as that deficit was quickly reduced to 22 points. And the Cats continued to have more run than Fremantle in the second half as Scott\u2019s side surged to victory.<\/p>\n
Asked what Scott said at quarter-time, Shannon Neale said after the game: \u201cI won\u2019t go into it too much. But pretty much just we weren\u2019t playing the way we wanted to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the word disgraceful was used. That\u2019s completely fair, we agreed with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come out after quarter-time and fix a few things up and play a certain way and get over the line is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a much needed response from Geelong overall as it bounced back from a disaster 56-point loss to Gold Coast in Opening Round.<\/p>\n
Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson said Saturday\u2019s result was a win of \u201ccharacter\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey showed a lot of that after quarter-time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see the coaches and the way they wanted to deliver the message to each other and the group,<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that point on they changed their game, it became more of a kicking game. To grind this out and have more run in their legs was just superior.<\/p>\n
\u201cA brilliant, brilliant effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as \u2018Disgraceful\u2019: Chris Scott spray sparks comeback<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong has overcome their worst start in almost 50 years to storm home and claim a 10-point win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,12923,267821,10124,13659,2485,12102,12141,40511,10400,28267,13126,241342,44188,677,71125,39209,701,267820,85],"class_list":["post-540466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-chris-scott","tag-developing-ruckman","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-geelong-cats","tag-gold-coast","tag-jack-gunston","tag-jeremy-cameron","tag-judd-mcvee","tag-justin-longmuir","tag-luke-ryan","tag-mason-cox","tag-mitch-edwards","tag-mitch-knevitt","tag-oceania","tag-ollie-henry","tag-patrick-dangerfield","tag-queensland","tag-respective-injuries","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}