On the worst losing run of his coaching tenure, Geelong mentor Chris Scott isn’t ready to hit the panic button just yet.
The Cats fell to a fourth straight defeat for the first time since 2006 when Greater Western Sydney held on in a four-point thriller at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday night.
It left Scott’s side with a 7-4 record ahead of meetings with Richmond (home) and Sydney (SCG) before the mid-season bye.
“We were 7-0 and certainly not carried away, so now we’ve lost the last four we certainly won’t drop our bundle either,” two-time premiership coach Scott said.
“I was really disappointed with the way we played against Port Adelaide (in round nine). That was as poor a performance as I can remember.
“And last week (against Gold Coast) was an outlier as well on the scoreboard.
“But if you take out the Gold Coast game, the three losses we’ve had were all pretty much by a kick.”
Scott expects all teams will go through difficult patches throughout the season and is confident the Cats can find a way out of their slump.
“Those that come through them will be the ones that finish up towards the top of the ladder,” Scott said.
“I think the greatest risk is that you overcorrect and see problems that aren’t necessarily there and you end up a bit confused as to how it is you want your game to look.”
On Saturday night, Geelong rallied from 31 points down in the third quarter and hit the front in the fourth before GWS captain Toby Greene kicked a brilliant goal to give his side the lead again.
The Cats won the inside-50 count 24-5 in the final term and kicked two goals to one, but were repeatedly repelled by the likes of Leek Aleer, who took two match-saving marks in the dying stages.
Scott felt his side’s earlier struggles came largely from giving the Giants field position from stoppages, while they also allowed the visitors too many contested marks and conceded control at centre bounces.
“Where the method and the way we want to play really fell down was early in the game,” Scott said.
“We put ourselves in a position where I thought we were lucky to be (only) four goals down at one stage.”
It is the first time Geelong have lost consecutive home games at GMHBA Stadium since 2015, following the defeat to Port Adelaide in round nine.
GWS are the first visiting side to post four consecutive wins over Geelong at the Kardinia Park venue since Leigh Matthews’ Brisbane Lions, featuring Scott as a player, in 2003.
