{"id":595588,"date":"2026-04-09T11:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595588\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:56:11","slug":"afl-and-geelong-coach-chris-scott-in-row-over-wildcard-round-as-comments-labelled-extraordinary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595588\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL and Geelong coach Chris Scott in row over wildcard round as comments labelled \u2018extraordinary\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geelong coach Chris Scott\u2019s scathing comments about this season\u2019s wildcard round have been labelled \u201cextraordinary\u201d and reportedly caused the AFL to take action.<\/p>\n

In 2026, rather than the top eight progressing straight through to the Finals series, two playoff matches will take place to determine the final two spots \u2014 with seventh taking on 10th, and eighth facing ninth.<\/p>\n

The move is an attempt to increase the number of teams involved in the Finals, but Scott had a more cynical assessment of its implementation \u2014 insisting the motivation is simply financial.<\/p>\n

Following Geelong\u2019s one-point loss to Hawthorn<\/a>, he told Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360<\/a>: \u201cSee, this is why I shouldn\u2019t do this so close to the game, I speak my mind – which is good for you, and bad for me, generally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tend to think they just made it up. Just threw in a couple more Finals for no good reason except cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of the comments, journalist Caroline Wilson has revealed they have caught the attention of the AFL \u2014 who have contacted Geelong boss Steve Hocking.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Agenda Setters<\/a>, Wilson said: \u201cIt was an extraordinary comment to make. I can tell you that went down like a lead balloon at headquarters. It was a pretty low dig.<\/p>\n

\"Buy,<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd remember, this is a guy who clashed with an AFL staffer after the qualifying final last year and really quite upset her, about an incident that he wasn\u2019t happy about at a post-match press conference after their big win against Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he has lost a few brownie points with the AFL, Chris Scott. I think there\u2019s been conversations today between the AFL and the Geelong CEO Steve Hocking.<\/p>\n

\"SuperCoach<\/p>\n

\u201cJust bemused \u2014 why did he say that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks came after Scott\u2019s men ended up on the wrong end of one of the most thrilling games of the season so far, losing 92-91 to Hawthorn with a last-gasp behind.<\/p>\n

The result leaves Geelong with a record of 2-2 after they followed up a loss to Gold Coast with back-to-back wins over Fremantle and Adelaide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong coach Chris Scott\u2019s scathing comments about this season\u2019s wildcard round have been labelled \u201cextraordinary\u201d and reportedly caused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-595588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595588","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=595588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}