Geelong president Colin Carter believes Chris Scott is the man to lead any changes after finals exit

GEELONG president Colin Carter has backed in newly re-signed coach Chris Scott to drive change at the Cats, adamant he is the right man for the job.

Geelong coach Chris Scott speaks to his players. Picture: Michael Klein

GEELONG president Colin Carter has backed in newly re-signed coach Chris Scott to drive change at the Cats, adamant he is the right man for the job.

Carter said the Cats were ready for honest discussions about the best way forward, conceding the lack of top-10 draft picks secured in the past decade was a subject for review.

Carter said rather than labelling the season a failure, Geelong had to methodically work through why it had crashed out against Melbourne, with the Cats 3-9 in finals since 2012.

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They also lost their last five MCG games for the year, although they got within three points of premiership favourites Richmond at that venue in Round 20.

Carter told the Herald Sun Scott was the man to lead any change required at Geelong after recently signing a four-year contract extension through to 2022.

“We are not equivocal at all on that. We are very confident we have got that decision right, but obviously there are a whole bunch of things we have to look at and Chris is a part of everything we will look at. He will drive a lot of that.

Geelong president Colin Carter. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

“My view is the role of a board is to provide air cover so the football team can make good decisions.

“These are times when we need calm heads.”

Geelong has been one of the AFL’s high achievers in recent seasons, posting winning seasons all the way back to 2006 despite missing the finals in 2015 with an 11-win, one-draw season.

Carter says the club will review its draft history after using first-round picks to mostly secure established talent in the past decade.

In the past 10 national drafts the club has had only one top-10 pick (injury prone Nakia Cockatoo) and five picks between 11-20; Darcy Lang (pick 16), Jackson Thurlow (pick 16), Billie Smedts (pick 15), Daniel Menzel (pick 17) and Mitch Brown (pick 15).

“I think Sydney finds themselves in the same situation we do,” Carter said.

Chris Scott talks to his players during the elimination final.

“Hawthorn might be a couple of years later than us in dealing with their list but there is no doubt we have had one pick in the top 10 in the past 10 years and it was No.10.

“I think the guys have done incredibly well reinventing the team with basically only four guys on the list from the last premiership side.

“So we are pretty proud of that but the unanswered question is can you pull enough strings to pull off a premiership? That is a work in progress.”

Carter says declaring the season a pass or fail isn’t helpful, aware Geelong entered the season with a head of steam after late wins and yet still having to rely on rival teams losing to get into eighth spot.

“There is a desire in your industry to declare a success or fail but in America they talk about winning seasons and we have had a hell of a long time since our last non-winning season.

“We had a winning season so we won’t define the year as successful but we are going to define it as a failure.

“Life is more nuanced than that.”