By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
THE GLASS is half full for Geelong coach Chris Scott as he takes stock at the halfway mark of the season.
While the doubters have been out in force after Geelong’s topsy-turvy form over the past six weeks, Scott still likes to focus on the positives.
With the spotlight squarely on the Cats rather than St Kilda, being at home again on Sunday afternoon will be an added boost this week.
“It is a good time to take a step back, particularly with a nine-day break, and have a look at the things we’ve done really well,” Scott smiled at this week’s media conference.
“And we have done a lot of things well,” he insisted. “The games where we’ve been really good around the ball we’ve been hard to beat.”
When it came to improvement, Scott said the inconsistency so far reflected the evenness of the competition.
“The inconsistency doesn’t so much show that there are huge problems in our game, it just means that, because the competition is so even, when we’re off it hurts us a lot more than even it has in the previous few years.
“I think most sides would say they’re striving for consistency but we’re really positive at the halfway mark knowing that there are a lot of things we can improve with the specifics of our game.
“But we’re going to have to fight really hard and train really hard to improve those things in a short space of time.
“Because there aren’t easy games in the competition you don’t really get a chance to take a breather, so we’re going to have to push on and work on playing as close to our best as soon as possible because that’s what it’s going to take.”
Rectifying unforced errors would be a focus at training this week, Scott admitted.
“The pure unforced errors (against Carlton), where there wasn’t enough pressure to justify the poor skill level, was high. We did give the ball back too easily.”
The prospective return of proven AFL performers in Allen Christensen and Josh Caddy excited the coach.
“We’re really looking forward to getting (them) back in the team. It’s amazing what two inside midfielders do to the balance of your team.
“I don’t think we’ve had our best group together this year, so we’re excited at the prospect of having 32 players who all have a genuine chance of being in our best 22.”
