CATS’ FINALS FAILURE ‘DISAPPOINTING’ —

SEPTEMBER FAILURES: More expected, says Geelong boss

GEELONG’S underwhelming finals record over the past five seasons is “disappointing” but not indicative of a fundamental inability to perform under September pressure, says Brian Cook.

But the Geelong chief executive said the Cats still fell short of their finals expectations after flying into second position on the ladder.

Since winning the 2011 grand final, Chris Scott’s men have made the top-four three times (2013, 2014 and 2016) but converted that home-andaway dominance to just two wins from eight finals.

One of those wins was a stirring comeback over a brash Port Adelaide in the 2013 semifinal, the other was decided by Isaac Smith’s miskick after the final siren three weeks ago.

In some of the bad losses, including the 2012 elimination final against Fremantle and last Friday night’s trainwreck against Sydney, the Cats paid the price for a tardy opening to the game.

They also failed to close out a 19-point lead 10 minutes into the final quarter against Hawthorn in the 2013 preliminary final.

Seething Cats captain Joel Selwood this week said he expected more from his players in the big moments, admitting: “We’ve had guys who have played in a few finals, so we probably expected a bit more”.

Geelong remains commit- ted to offering Scott a new contract but both parties have agreed to leave negotiations over an extension until early in the new year.

The 2011 premiership coach has a year to run on the deal he signed in 2014, but there are looming changes to the coaching structure around him, notably the departure of highlyregarded lieutenant Blake Caracella to Richmond.

“We were disappointed with it, for sure,” Cook said when asked if he was worried about his club’s recent finals record.

“But first of all, we made the finals in four out of five years. That’s not bad, but having made the finals, we’ve lost a few more than we would have liked. But I don’t know if we can read into that anything in particular, apart from playing good teams on their days.”

Cook set a top-four finish as the pass mark over pre-season after the Cats reloaded their list with the four-pronged recruiting raid of Patrick Dan- gerfield, Lachie Henderson, Scott Selwood and Zac Smith.

But he said the disastrous performance in the preliminary final exit has left a sour taste.

“We achieved our early goals. We had a good reason to extend those goals to something more aspirational when we were in the top-four but we were disappointed in that last game,” Cook said. “It was a season of relatively more highs than lows and unfortunately we hit a low on our last game.”