By Justin Flynn
Hands up if you are a Geelong supporter and have spent most of this week fiddling around with the AFL Ladder Predictor?
Thought so.
Geelong’s finals hopes are now officially out of their own hands.
Even coach Chris Scott has been spending too much time on afl.com.au.
“I could talk to you about it for ages, because I’ve probably done the ladder predictor 500 times, but you know what, it doesn’t matter,” he said after the narrow loss to Hawthorn.
“Our responsibility internally is to make sure we play as well as we possibly can this week and next week.
“Our priority has just got to be, (to) play as well as we can, get ourselves in good form. We’re in okay form but I’m confident we can play a lot better than we did tonight.”
With Geelong in ninth spot, finals are still very much a possibility.
With two home games at GMHBA Stadium against Fremantle and Gold Coast, two wins should eventuate.
There are many scenarios that would see Geelong make it into the top eight, but the most likely would be for Port Adelaide to lose one of its last two games.
First things first, though.
Geelong should dispose of Fremantle tomorrow.
If Collingwood knocks Port over, the Cats will climb into the eight and with just the struggling Suns to play, finals would be a certainty.
One cause of concern for the Cats is the starts that they are giving other sides.
For the fourth time in five games, Geelong looked to be down and almost out early in the final term before coming back to a winnable position.
Last Friday night, Geelong trailed Richmond by four goals before storming home to finally lose by three points.
On Saturday, Hawthorn led by 26 points at the final change, only for Geelong to launch a comeback that saw it trail by a kick, before Jaeger O’Meara iced the game for the Hawks.
“The comeback was good, I don’t think anyone can accuse us of not hanging in there and believing we can win when the chips are down,” Scott said.
“I think the more pertinent question is, ‘Why are we waiting so long to play that way in games’?”
Patrick Dangerfield had 40 touches and Gary Ablett 32, but several Cats players fell well short of the mark.
Lachie Fogarty (five disposals), Daniel Menzel (seven) and James Parsons (eight) were simply too quiet.
Tomorrow’s game at GMHBA Stadium begins at 2.10pm.
Geelong will do enough to win comfortably by 37 points, but will be hoping the Pies can also get the job done.
