By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
Chris Scott is a hard marker.
While appreciating the Cats’ 10-1 win-loss ratio, the Geelong coach remains steadfastly dissatisfied with the team’s performance so far.
A number of comments from Scott at Geelong’s season halfway mark reveal his deep misgivings about inconsistency among his mix of seasoned and new players.
Inconsistency is often a hallmark of younger players, as Gold Coast and GWS Giants have shown in the past two outings against the Cats.
Both teams were in winning positions against a ladder leader but fell away horribly in the final quarter to lose by 50-plus margins.
Scott knows both clubs will improve their consistency with maturity and experience – he’s just hoping the same applies to Geelong.
The hitch is Geelong’s younger players have only half a season to throw off the downers and cease relying on the premiership players to again kick-start things.
His comments the last few weeks, both pre and post-match, centred on the need to “fix” Geelong’s inconsistency, including slow starts.
“We haven’t played our best footy consistently. It’s not stop four standard,” Scott said after the Giants game.
He spoke of the frustration creeping in for players and coaches:
“We’re all frustrated. We’re talking and practicing it, we’re just not implementing it in the heat of the game.
“I hope you know it’s not just lip service. We have not played very well for four quarters at any stage this year and we need to fix it because it won’t cut it against the best.”
The inconsistency is mirrored by the ins and outs of younger players so far this season, with few stringing together many games.
Even though he was rested against the Giants, ruckman Mark Blicavs is the stark exception, making his story all the more remarkable.
It is one of the reasons why the Cats are following a conservative injury management regime with established stars like Paul Chapman and Travis Varcoe and experienced campaigners such as Hamish McIntosh and Jared Rivers.
Scott wants them in the side but also wants them available at finals time.
He hopes a broader mix of experience injected into the side in the second half of the season will help eliminate the flat spots.
Despite the luxury of six games to come at Simonds Stadium, Scott sees no comfort in the draw.
“We think we play well here but we’ve said all along that it’s far from a forgone conclusion that we just have to turn up here at home and play well.”
