By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
BEING an enigma wrapped in a mystery suits Geelong coach Chris Scott just fine.
With many pundits downplaying Geelong’s premiership chances, Scott told his week’s media conference at Simonds Stadium that he was happy for other teams to enjoy the spotlight.
Asked whether commentators were getting Geelong wrong, Scott said he wasn’t sure.
“And I don’t think they’re sure either,” he added.
“The difficult thing for them is they have to make a comment.
“It would be a pretty boring opinion piece if they said, ‘I’m not sure where the Cats are and therefore not really sure who the favourites are’. They’ve got to make a call.
“I think some of them get it wrong regularly but that’s what makes it interesting.
“You don’t read what they write and take it as verbatim. It stirs different opinions and debate, which is healthy.”
“I’m happy for other teams to be pushed up and for the media commentators look past us a little bit. That’s probably the place we’d rather be, to be frank.”
The uncertainties about Geelong’s prospects are fuelled by the difference between its best and its worst – much like its Saturday night opponent, North Melbourne.
Geelong tends to have its ups and downs within the one game, whereas Kangaroos fans don’t know whether Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde will turn up to their games.
But Scott consistently backs his side to deliver when the chips are down.
“We’ve got some things internally we’re working on. We’re pretty confident that our footy, when it counts, is going to be pretty good,” he said.
“Quite rightly most of the footy world is talking about Sydney and Hawthorn at the moment. They’ve been the best performed teams all year and they just played a cracking game on the weekend.
“It’s only right they take their place centre stage.
“As far as we’re concerned, where we are rated within the completion is kind of irrelevant. They’ll either get us right or they’ll get us wrong, and it won’t affect us one little bit.
“We’ve got some tough games to finish the year over the next five weeks.
“We’re just scrapping and scraping to get as high as we can and give ourselves a chance to play our best footy in the finals.”
Stalwart defensive midfielder James Kelly will play his 250th AFL game this week.
Scott lauded Kelly’s contribution to the team, saying he had added longevity to his superb skill-set and was only getting better.
Scott has also been added to a coaching panel under Alastair Clarkson for the 2014 International Rules Series, alongside Fremantle coach Ross Lyon.
