‘Contrarian’ Cats took long, challenging road to flag, says Scott

The critics had been circling Chris Scott for a decade. There were even moments during that time when the Geelong coach questioned his own “contrarian” views around list management, as his team fashioned a lacklustre 7-15 finals record from 2012-21.

Ultimate success proved elusive, while the notion of rebuilding was summarily eschewed.

Chris Scott and Joel Selwood after the siren.Credit: Eddie Jim

Geelong’s emphatic 81-point demolition of Sydney in Saturday’s grand final didn’t have Scott suddenly boasting “I told you so”.

Instead, he reflected positively on the long road to ultimate success, relishing the lessons learnt from the many speed bumps during that seemingly eternal interim.

“I get it,” Scott said, acknowledging the cynics. “I don’t think I’ve ever argued with it.

“We fully recognise that we’ve taken a contrarian view around list rebuilds and list management in general and our attitude towards fossils like the bloke next to me [Norm Smith medallist Isaac Smith].

“We’ve never had any intention of trying to prove people wrong or argue against their point of view. – their point of view was logical for the most part.

“Please, if you hear anything that even approaches [me saying] ‘I told you so’, check me on it because it’s not the way we feel.

“We certainly had our moments where we questioned what we were doing and there were plenty of people who were keen to remind us that it was different to the way other clubs go about it.

“But it does feel like it’s been a really long, challenging road.”

The Cats wiped away years of September disappointment in savage fashion on Saturday.

And they did so while fielding the oldest team in VFL/AFL history.

It made all those rough times worth it.

“We knew we were taking some risks but we backed it in and trusted our people,” Scott said.

“It’s a metaphor for life really, if you want to do great things, don’t expect it to be smooth sailing.

“You’re going to have to shake hands with adversity at some point.

“If you can hang in, with no guarantee that you’ll get the ultimate success, it might be worth it.”

Scott knew his charges were on early, the Cats torching the Swans with a blistering first-quarter ambush.

Once the match was on Geelong’s terms, it was going to be difficult for Sydney to wriggle out of it.

“It’s gratifying as a coaching group when you spend so much time talking about different ‘what-ifs’ and trying to set the game up so we could play our style of footy,” Scott said.

“With the quality of the opposition these days, if the game’s played their way, you’re in trouble.

“Some of our guys in and around the centre bounce did a great job getting the ball forward. We got the match-ups we wanted, we got the look of the game that we wanted early, which I suspect gave our players some confidence.

“It’s nice when you go out saying ‘this is what it will look like if we have the game on our terms’.

“Pretty early on that’s how it appeared to us.”

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