Round 18 Press Conference Takeaways

Chris Scott fronted the media for his weekly press conference, ahead of Geelong's trip to Sydney to take on the GWS Giants

Scott on the challenge against GWS

There are always issues, but in relation to the upcoming game we just have so much respect for the way that they play.

I think that would be true irrespective of recent results, but it is clear that they would have some confidence against us.

I guess our counter would be that we think we happen to have played poorly against them in the past, we need to arrest that. I don't think the things that we have front of mind with regards to way they play is news to anyone.

At their best they are a really, really dangerous team and well balanced too.

A little while ago it used be that they were stacked for talent in their midfield and that could overwhelm you, I think now when I refer to the balance I mean their backs have been a real strength, then ahead of the ball they have got a taller forward line which obviously poses some threats.

15:01

Scott on the Cameron v Hogan battle

While I said that we are not necessarily thinking that we would win if Hogan doesn't kick a bag, the other way of looking at it is if Cameron dominates or Hogan dominates, that team is going to have a big advantage.

We are trying to maximise what Jeremy can do and GWS certainly play that way, Hogan gets every chance to kick a lot of goals playing deep.

It is not always him just dominating the game, he is within goal scoring range for virtually most of the game.

He doesn't need many chances to hurt you on the scoreboard, but I don't mind the theory at all because fans should be enthused by that battle.

Scott on playing at ENGIE Stadium

It has been a while since we played there, I think it was 2020 the last time, Round 1 just before the pandemic.

I do remember it, they kicked 17.3 or something and didn't miss. Does it help playing them there? Not really.

But I think if they were coming here, they would be confident and with good reason.

I think we go there with a level of confidence that we can play well, but again we have a healthy respect for what they can do.

07:06

Scott on Sam De Koning's return to football

So he won't play in the AFL team this week, we are still working through whether we would give him some VFL game time but I think that is unlikely.

I am thinking out loud here a little bit, but he is making really good progress.

It was certainly on the table for him to play this week, but my sense is that we will just wait a little bit there.

Scott on the run home

We do look forward, but that is a coaching groups job. The short answer is yes, but the next bit is that we don't take anything for granted.

I could frame this answer a number of ways but say we play St Kilda next week, we lost to them in Round 2. We play Port Adelaide who when they are hot, they are really hot and they beat us down here last year. North Melbourne at Marvel, if you wanted to be a pessimist you would say that we haven't played at Marvel particularly well. Then we play Sydney at the SCG who were always going to play better when they got some players back.

It depends how you want to frame it, if you want to look forward and get intimidated or you want to look forward and get complacent, I think what you are aiming for is pragmatism.

In my time in the game, when you have had a pretty good team, and I think we are a pretty good team, so much of your focus should just be around you and if we get it right, it won't matter who we play.

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