By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
GEELONG coach Chris Scott is walking a football tightrope as the season comes down to the wire – and he knows it.
“The season is really finely balanced,” Scott agreed at this week’s media conference.
“It’s part of the art of coaching and we try and back it up with science.
“We’re not in a position where we can take liberties and, to be frank, we’ve never really taken liberties.
“We’ve got a lot of players we think are capable of contributing to our best 22 and we always consider the short term against the long term and hopefully make good decisions.”
Some of those decisions will revolve around selection, with some sore bodies but a minimum of injuries, unlike other top-four clubs.
It’s part of Geelong’s aim to peak at the business end of the season unaffected by player unavailability, at full match fitness and gelling together despite an up and down year.
“There’s getting them back and there’s getting them back at their best,” Scott explained.
“We think we’re a little bit off that. The challenge is to get all our good players playing well at the same time.
“The team will clearly benefit as a result of that. We’ve got them pretty much all back together and we’re hopeful we can build some momentum.”
Following the review of the wintry game against the Western Bulldogs Scott said the “so-called” second half fade-outs were more due to a lack of scoring.
“We’re gradually improving those things. I don’t think we thought it was as bad as some people outside the club did.
“Hopefully we’re a little more balanced and we look into it with a bit more depth than those that only have a passing interest in it.
“It’s still been a problem for us. We were in a really commanding position at half time, the weather made it a little more difficult to score for both teams, but we didn’t play as well as we’d like to.
“But we’re optimistic we’ll improve.”
Improvement is the key for the Melbourne side facing the Cats at the MGC on Saturday afternoon, with the imprimatur of coach Paul Roos, a thorn in Geelong’s side while he was at Sydney.
At least it will give the Geelong recruiting staff a close up look at potential free agency target, Demon defender James Frawley.
