By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
Geelong coach Chris Scott certainly has a sense of occasion.
This week he didn’t brush off questions about the Easter Monday blockbuster against Hawthorn as just another game.
“It’s always a bit different for the really big games,” Scott observed.
“Most good clubs pride themselves on their consistency of process and we’re no different to an extent but we do embrace the big occasions.
“We really value players who can stand up on the big stage against the best opposition and this will be a big stage and they will be very good opposition.
“A standalone game on Easter Monday at the MCG – I can’t imagine even the impartial football follower wanting for a bigger occasion to come and see two good teams go hard at each other.
“Internally, we’re really looking forward to it.”
Scott also has a sense of place in history.
“Taking an external view, we’re all just so proud to be part of this era and this rivalry. I can’t imagine a better time to be a Geelong or Hawthorn supporter,” he declared.
“We’ll all look back on this era and recognise it as one of the great times in football history.”
Geelong’s defensive effort against West Coast was timely, Scott said.
“Our defensive effort is the cornerstone of our game and it really helps the way we attack as well.
“It’s a bit naive to say we prioritise one over the other – the two are closely linked.
“But particularly against West Coast, who have shown they can score very quickly early on in the season, to limit not only their scoring but to limit their entries particularly after quarter time was a really strong defensive effort.
“And it was good practice against the side coming up because no one uses the ball better or attacks better than Hawthorn.”
Scott warned the hard tag would most likely come under closer scrutiny from umpires this weekend.
“Stuff is missed in the game all the time, it’s an incredibly hard game to umpire.
“One of the pleasing developments in the umpiring this year is that the umpires are being encouraged to call the things they see but not to guess.
“One of the cues the umpires have used in the past, which I think is good policy, is when a player turns around and faces his direct opponent off the ball and puts his arms around him that should be an automatic free kick.”
Scott said he would be judicious in the way Geelong’s own tagger, Cameron Guthrie, was used against Hawthorn, with its fleet of midfielders.
“There might be one we want to lock down but we tend not to be a side that goes absolutely defensively against any player.
“We’ll take a step back and have a look at it and decide on balance what we need to do versus what they will probably do against us.”
