Ash Bolt
Geelong coach Chris Scott is remaining positive despite a disappointing 30-point loss to Sydney on Friday night.
The Cats travelled to the SCG filled with confidence following an impressive round one win, but were outplayed by the Swans in the 17.5 (107) to 10.17 (77) defeat.
Scott said the Cats’ ball use was a leading factor – with the team going at just 69 per cent efficiency across the game.
“Their team played really well,” he said.
“It was a bit of a strange game from our perspective in that we thought the conditions were good early but it almost looked like a wet weather game for us.
“The problem was it didn’t look like a wet weather game for them the way they handled the ball, so we were beaten around the ball.
It’s not often you play poorly get beaten by 30-odd points and have more scoring shots and more inside 50s, so it was a bit strange.
“They took their chances [and we didn’t].”
Scott said despite the defeat, there were positives in the way the Cats played.
“We didn’t play well but you can point to some things,” he said.
“Our midfield got soundly beaten, but we did get the ball forward more than the opposition.
“It was more the quality of what we were doing – they pressured really well.
“Every team in the AFL is going to have nights where you have reason to question some of the things you’re doing, but if we were a cleaner with the ball it would have changed a lot.
“It’s simple stuff that I think is easily turned around.”
Scott singled out small forward Brad Close for praise, after the 23-year-old kicked four goals to go with 18 disposals, a game-high 11 score involvements and five tackles.
“In a tough night for us it was a really complete game for a small running forward,” Scott said.
“He was really good last week – we thought he was in the best five players on the ground – and he was clearly our best player [on Friday].
“He’s developing really well.”
However the match was overshadowed by Sydney forward Lance Franklin becoming just the sixth player in VFL/AFL history to kick 100 goals.
Going into the game needing four goals for the milestone, Franklin slotted the 1000th of his career with around six minutes left in the final quarter.
Thousands of fans jumped the fence and surrounded Franklin to celebrate with milestone, with play stopped for 36 minutes.
