AFL 2022: Geelong Cats v Fremantle Dockers result and news out of the round seven clash

A footy great says Geelong should ask Chris Scott for a “please explain” after accusing the Cats coach of being “disrespectful” in an interview before his team’s loss to Fremantle.

Simeon Thomas-Wilson

@Simeon_TW

7 min read

May 1, 2022 - 4:22PM

News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

A dejected Cameron Guthrie can’t believe is side has dropped a home game. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

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Former Collingwood coach Tony Shaw has slammed Geelong coach Chris Scott for a pre-match interview he gave before the club’s loss to Fremantle, saying the Cats supremo “has to pull his head in”.

The 1990 Premiership winning captain took aim at Scott after a pre-match interview the Geelong coach gave on 3AW labelling it a “public relations disaster” for the Cats.

“I’ve never been driving along and wanted to punch the radio where it stood in the dashboard,” Shaw said on 3AW on Sunday.

“For me Chris Scott, I don’t know why it occurred, I don’t care if you are in a bad mood. “I’ve had to write this down because I was pretty emotional about it.

“It was arrogant, it was disrespectful and it was a public relations disaster for the Geelong footy club around how he didn’t answer questions.

“I don’t know the reasons behind it but he is the face of that club and for some reason he has a mistrust of media and wanting to give away things.

“It is like the secret service down there, this is a game football it isn’t physics or something like that there seems to be a thing where he is like I don’t want to give an advantage to anyone.”

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Scott was asked by Tim Lane about the potential of equalling Reg Hickey with a 184th win as coach of the Cats.

Scott said he wasn’t aware and had “no comment” and went back to answering a question from Caroline Wilson about Joel Selwood.

“I’m more comfortable in talking about other people,” he said.

The Geelong coach did eventually return to Lane’s question.

“Tim no I don’t know what to say but I appreciate you, I don’t know how to describe it, bringing it up,” he said.

Shaw said that wasn’t the way it should be answered.

“You are talking about Reg Hickey, one of the greats of the Geelong footy club,” he said.

“Tim is trying to wrap him up and he goes back to the other question. All he had to say is ‘well Tim I didn’t know that but thank you very much I appreciate it and it is great to on the same level as a Reg Hickey who has a grandstand named after him’”.

“There were other things though … I just think he was getting ahead of himself.”

Tony Shaw says Geelong should ask for a ‘please explain’ from Chris Scott over radio comments.

Shaw said if he was the Cats president he would issue a please explain to Scott.

“I think the Geelong supporters might be a bit sick of this, they want to know how they will win or why they will win,” he said.

“Who is playing where because or why, who isn’t playing where because of why.

“He was asked a question about an advantage of playing at Geelong and does it not help you in the finals and he goes “oh good sides win anywhere” but there is an advantage at Geelong

“They’ve won 100 out of 114 games at Geelong that is massive … just admit that there is an advantage.

“I think he was disrespectful to them (the panel on radio) and I think Geelong fans deserve more.

“For me it was disrespectful and I think Chris Scott has to pull his head in a bit.”

Richmond great Matthew Richardson said questions about Geelong’s strong home-and-away record not translating to the finals might have irked Scott somewhat.

“That would hurt Chris,” Richardson said.

“He would want the record in the home and away series to be replicated in finals and if I was coach I might have bristled at that question.

“But the facts are there that Geelong finish top four, they win all their home games and then they don’t play finals at home and maybe it hurts them on some of the bigger grounds.”

SCOTT’S POSITIVE SPIN ON CATS’ HOME DEBACLE

Josh Barnes

Despite watching his side lose to Fremantle at GMHBA Stadium for the first time since 2015, Geelong coach Scott wasn’t too concerned about what the result means for his side.

“It’s frustrating now but … it’s not the end of the world for us,” Scott said.

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After copping a fierce Geelong burst to start the game, Justin Longmuir’s men put their big boy pants on and proved to be smarter, tougher and cleaner than their fancied hosts in a three-point thriller.

A late Mark Blicavs long bomb brought the fast-finishing Cats within three points with 23 seconds to go in the match before David Mundy won two hard balls in the middle to seal the deal.

A dejected Cameron Guthrie can’t believe is side has dropped a home game. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

The Cats were beaten for the majority of the day by the upstart Dockers and were flattered by a three-point margin but still showed patches of dominance early and late.

Scott pointed to those patches as signs his team isn’t far off stringing together a run of consistent footy as it looks to jump out of a 4-3 hole and get its top-four hopes back on track.

“I think we’ve shown patches where we’ve looked as good as the best teams,” he said.

“Melbourne are the best team but there’s a big pack chasing.

“It’s just going to be a struggle throughout the year so the challenge is to not throw in the towel and let the bad days snowball into consecutive bad days.

“But also not to get too high on your toes when you do have some good patches, we have just got to keep it level, keep fighting, keep working on our game.

Geelong coach Chris Scott put a positive spin on the Cats’ defeat. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

“We have the believe that if we do get our game to a really high level and we get our guys playing as well as they can, we are a pretty good team.”

Despite missing key players Sean Darcy, Matt Taberner and Nat Fyfe, the no-fuss Freo left Geelong with a 6-1 record and a top-four berth beckoning after holding the deadly Cats to just 10 goals.

With a fully functioning, if unheralded midfield, a shrewd forward line and the best defence this side of Steven May and Jake Lever and the reigning premiers, the Dockers are the real deal.

For one side to burst into the top-four, one has to fall out and the Cats appear shaky with a 4-3 record and up-and-down play.

Blake Acres was one of Fremantle’s stars against Geelong. Picture: Michael Klein

Dockers coach Justin Longmuir backed the smash-and-grab win as among of the best of his tenure.

“I don’t know where it stacks, as a coaching group you don’t really sit around rating it but it was a great win,” he said.

The Dockers of yesteryear could have easily slumped after being rocked like they were in the first quarter, as the Cats booted the first three goals and four of the first five.

Veteran Mundy steadied the ship in the midfield and went on to have 22 disposals, like a lighthouse he stood calm in the storm.

Jordan Clark celebrates beating his former club. Picture: Getty Images

He was joined by growing Brownlow favourite Andrew Brayshaw, the improving Blake Acres and Geelong Grammar alumni Caleb Serong as the Dockers were cleaner, more organised and sharper.

A lively Tyson Stengle kicked Geelong’s fifth goal of the first term and created their next one, well over halfway through the third quarter, as he danced his way forward before Rhys Stanley rose high in the goalsquare.

That steadier was quickly outpointed as Acres pounced on a stinker of a kick out of defence from Cat Jake Kolodjashnij to bomb one home from outside 50m and set up a three-goal buffer at the final change.

The Dockers have proven they are the real deal.

Code swap

There was no ball tracking but the arc would have been forgiven for thinking they were adjudicating a different sport in the second term when Lachie Schultz kicked one off the ground into the goal umpire. A score review deemed the ball “would have made contact with the goalpost” if it didn’t hit the umpire’s knee and it was paid a behind, but there was no word whether it pitched outside leg stump.

Nathan O'Driscoll that was special!! GOTY contenderâ‰ï¸

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O’Driscoll, oh my

Fremantle teenager Nathan O’Driscoll stunned the parochial Geelong crowd in the first term with his own contender for goal of the year. Pressed right up against the boundary on the eastern side of GMHBA Stadium, he struck a left-foot shot perfectly from 45m, and thanks to some goal line shepherding from Josh Treacy.

James Aish evades Cameron Guthrie.

Flick the switch

The lights were out for Geelong’s forward line for about an hour in the middle part of the game and it was the same at GMHBA Stadium. The power went out in the Hickey Stand on the eastern side of the ground midway through the second quarter, with the ground’s biggest screen also blank for the majority of the game and most fans without a scoreboard in view.