Top Cat has his back up over stats comparison

GEELONG coach Chris Scott says the club’s 22 per cent win rate in finals since their 2011 AFL premiership is irrelevant as the Cats prepare to tackle a white-hot Sydney tomorrow night.

Scott yesterday declared Daniel Menzel would return for the MCG semi-final, conceding in hindsight his omission from the loss to Richmond was probably a mistake.

Scott was bullish in his defence of his team despite two wins from nine finals appearances since 2011.

“The team was completely different 12 months ago, so if you want to go back three years ago, I just think it’s an illogical argument to say this team’s got a bad finals record when it’s a completely different team,” Scott said.

“We’d prefer to have won the grand final last year. We had a bad quarter in particular in the prelim final but we did beat the team that had won the previous three grand finals in the first final.”

Scott said Menzel would add spark as a replacement for the injured Cam Guthrie (calf) and he also forecast the possible inclusion of Queenslander Wylie Buzza or Rhys Stanley.

“We’ve never been afraid to make changes. We pick the team each week based on what we think is right for that game, that opposition,” Scott said.

“He’s (Menzel) really excited to be feeling good going into this game and play a final.

“Buzza and Stanley are very much in the conversation but maybe the more relevant point is not whether they’re good enough to play – we’re confident they are – it’s just whether we would be too tall in conditions that are forecast to be slippery.”