No stress, ‘easy fix’ for Scott
MAKE no mistake. An out-ofsorts Geelong is now in a battle for a top-two spot as its stranglehold on the competition slowly slips.
Saturday’s shock 34-point loss to Fremantle has thrown West Coast and Brisbane back into the home final mix, undoing some of the Cats’ unbelievable early season work which had them as premiership favourite.
After rocketing to the top of the ladder courtesy of an 11-1 start to the season, the Cats have now lost four of their past seven games to teams outside the top eight.
The Cats spent a week in Western Australia, travelling directly to Perth after last week’s win over Sydney.
And despite Geelong’s training schedule remaining unchanged to what it would have been at home, the Cats played one of their worst games of the season.
Straight-talking captain Joel Selwood said it was “not a performance we are proud of”.
Cats coach Chris Scott and defender Mark Blicavs both defended the Perth stay after the match amid questions about whether the Cats had slipped into holiday mode.
Scott strongly defended the week away, saying he did not regret the decision to base the team in Perth leading into the Fremantle game.
“I think it’s a really superficial and cheap analysis to say it was only a good idea if you win both of the games,” Scott said.
“And even then we played pretty well in Sydney.
‘‘You open yourself up to those accusations (that we were over for a holiday). No one has more information than us.
“We were really confident in our preparation and we don’t make excuses.”
Blicavs said he felt the change in scenery and warm weather may not have delivered an instant result with a win over Fremantle, but was confident it would help the playing group come finals.
“The program was run really, really well. It was great to get some warmer weather and a good mental break from the club,” Blicavs said.
“We did it really well. We had a good main training session at South Freo (on Wednesday). The warmth was good.
“It’s a disappointing result. We did the week and it was all set up (for us) to be in the perfect spot to win today, which we didn’t, but we are hoping that week carries on for the next two, three, four, five games to freshen us up.
“It’s a cross today, but hopefully it’s a tick in the future.”
Speaking after the Round 18 loss to Hawthorn, Scott did not believe the Cats were in a form slump.
But he conceded on Saturday night there was a growing concern about his team’s shaky momentum leading into finals.
Still, he said he was not worried, labelling the Cats’ issues as “pretty easy fixes”.
“Of course we can (get momentum before finals). Is it a concern? I think there’s a pretty obvious answer to that question,” he said.
“We’d like to be playing better.
“These things are always relative. With us you look at the 12 games pre-bye and the games post-bye and we haven’t played as well.
“But we know we can. It wasn’t that long ago.
“I thought we played pretty well for three quarters last week and the first quarter was pretty good again today.
“It’s not as if we are in a huge hole or anything like that. The challenge for us is to make sure that we address that and work on the parts of the game that we need to without completely disregarding the fact we have been a pretty good team for the majority of the year.
“The things that are in my mind that we need to work on are pretty easy fixes.”
Blicavs said Geelong simply had to hit the training track.
“We need to acknowledge as players and as a team where our weaknesses are,” he said. “That’s the first thing and then work on it, get better. You have to train it and improve it.”