Geelong first AFL premier to lose opening two games since 2009

It’s been more than a decade since the reigning AFL premier lost the opening two games of the season and in 2009 that team missed the finals.

Geelong coach Chris Scott is not panicking. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Geelong coach Chris Scott is adamant his and his players are “not panicking” despite starting a season 0-2 for the first time in eight years.

Scott labelled superstar Jeremy Cameron a ”special player” for his effort in the loss to Carlton but conceded some high level players are “a bit off”.

Cameron played one of the best games of his stellar career, racking up 25 disposals, eight marks and six goals but it wasn’t enough for Geelong who went down by eight points.

The Cats have become the first reigning premiers to lose their first two games since Hawthorn in 2009, and the last time Geelong did so in 2015, it was the only time they have missed the finals in the past 16 seasons.

The Hawks didn’t make the top eight 14 years ago, either, but with Tom Stewart (knee), Jack Henry (foot), Jake Kolodjashnij (concussion), Mitch Duncan (calf) and Sam Menegola (knee) all still to come back into the team, Scott wasn’t pushing the panic button just yet.

Jeremy Cameron is a ‘special player’. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“We always knew that it was going to be a hard year,” Scott said after the Cats lost to Carlton by eight points at the MCG on Thursday night.

“But it’s certainly not a situation where we’re really panicking.

“Some of the disjointed manner in which we’re playing was a bit foreseeable with the shifts we’ve had, and even saying that, some of the new players that have come in, if you look at them in isolation there’s a lot to be positive with about those guys.

“We’ve come into this year with a view that we are going to be different, there are going to be some teething problems with a few things, and we’ve lost a couple of close games, but there’s still a lot to like.

“There’s a quiet confidence about us. I guess we do have extra confidence with our more experienced players that if we do get it right, that our top level is going to be hard to beat.

“We’re not quite there yet, we’ll work on it, but I’m probably erring more on the positive side.

“That’s the approach I’ve taken for quite some time – don’t get confused or react in a poor way based on the scoreboard or the win-loss.

“That’s a really hard sell if the players are sitting there going, ‘I’m not really sure that our best is going to be that good’. Our guys do know it, but don’t mistake what we’re saying for, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ll be fine’ – we’re not that in love with ourselves.”

While Scott said it was hard to gauge how far off their best the Cats were, he said they were “miles away” from generating ”negative momentum” which could threaten to derail their premiership defence early.

“We’ve got some players in there that we’re certain will get better, we’ve got some new guys in there where the chemistry is not quite at the point where we think it will be later in the season,” he said.

“Some guys that have been high-level players for us are a bit off.”

Patrick Dangerfield addresses his players. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

A decimated defence, which is currently missing Stewart, Henry, Kolodashnij and Duncan, who also played down there last year, has been one of the main reasons why the Cats are currently off kilter.

“That causes a real reshuffle that kind of came to us late in the pre-season,” Scott said.

“It’s not as if we had three months to prepare for that.”

For the second week in a row, Geelong were undone by opposition leg speed and pressure, as well as lopsided disposal (382-328) and mark (110-69) counts, but Scott wasn’t too concerned about those elements in the long term.

“If teams think that they should just keep it (the ball) off us, then we’ll be OK with that,” Scott said.

Another clutch of key players in Cameron, Sam De Koning, Zach Tuohy and Rhys Stanley copped some heavy hits against the Blues, but Scott was confident the star quartet would be available to face Gold Coast in 10 days’ time.

Duncan is also a chance to line up against the Suns for his first game of 2023.

Originally published as Geelong first AFL premier to lose opening two games since 2009