By Jake Niall
When it emerged that Tyson Stengle had been found “unresponsive” at a Geelong nightclub and rushed to hospital at 2.30am on the morning of July 28, the response of Chris Scott to the incident offered a telling case study of how the coach handles his players, in sickness and in health.
Scott not only chose not to sanction or admonish Stengle, he quickly decided that the talented All-Australian forward – who came to the club with a spotty record of misdemeanours – would play the next weekend against the Crows.
Veteran Geelong coach Chris Scott.Credit: Getty Images
Stengle, Scott said, had made an “error of judgment” but otherwise there were no visible consequences for the player.
“We don’t treat them like kids and we certainly don’t take a punitive approach,” Scott told the media. “This idea of public flaying is not the way we do things.”
One can only imagine how such a scenario would have played out at Melbourne, Collingwood or several other clubs. At Sleepy Hollow, the Stengle story was quickly put to bed, without repercussions. Stengle had 20 disposals and kicked 1.1 in the subsequent game.
Scott doesn’t believe in a punitive approach, as he stated. He says the players should be treated as adults, which appears to be in line with his famously pragmatic old coach, Leigh Matthews.
If eschewing punitive measures is not unique for current or ex-AFL coaches – Mick Malthouse once quipped that he would play an axe murderer if it helped him win – Scott does differ from the coaching herd on several fronts.
The more one delves into his methods, the more you’ll find divergence from what rival clubs’ coaches do (possibly excepting his brother Brad, who inherited clubs in more dishevelled states).
“I can’t get over how he’s able to control his emotions in front of the players,” said Josh Jenkins, the ex-Crow and Bomber who spent two years as a player and another two as a development coach under Scott.
Josh Jenkins, the Geelong recruit, in 2019.Credit: Getty Images
“He won’t engage with players if he knows he’s in a frustrated state. He knows he’ll say things he doesn’t mean.” Jenkins admitted he found Scott compelling. “He’s a fascinating character.”
From conversations with ex-players who played with the Cats, and officials who worked with the coach – two of whom hired him – several identifiable Chris Scott trademarks emerged.
1. Cerebral, not emotional
Whereas Ken Hinkley has shown emotion – and his team seems to ride on the back it – a feature of Scott, according to all consulted, is that he doesn’t let his feelings loose in the company of the playing group.
Brian Cook, the Carlton chief executive who ran Geelong for 23 years and was one of the panel that hired Scott in 2010, was asked to sum up the traits that differentiated the coach from most peers.
“If you had to define the one difference, it’s his stable temperament,” said Cook, who concurred with the view that the phlegmatic Leigh Matthews had been a seminal influence on the Geelong coach. “There’s always a hint of Leigh in Scotty.”
Chris Scott at training this week.Credit: Eddie Jim
This subjugation of emotions might surprise those who’ve watched Scott showing displeasure at umpiring decisions in the coach’s box (less frequent lately), or the generation old enough to have seen him play with a measure of brutality in the Lethal Lions teams.
In Jenkins’ view, Scott is governed more by his intellect than his feelings when dealing with the players. “Highly intelligent, highly unemotional,” was Jenkins’ summation.
2. Doesn’t chase ‘connection’
While first Richmond, then Collingwood and now Hawthorn have extolled the virtues of their deep connections with each other, the Cats have never travelled down that road under Scott, as people who have been within the Geelong club walls attest.
But the difference, in the view of Jenkins and others, isn’t that Scott doesn’t connect. It’s that connection is organic. Scott doesn’t sell connection, a club concept that has been in vogue since Richmond’s sharing-and-caring storyline of 2017.
In 2017-2021, when Geelong kept finishing high and exiting the finals (aside from the 2020 grand final) by preliminary final evening, members of the football department asked whether the team needed to be more connected, as per the fashion.
They didn’t.
“I would think in many respects it’s almost more authentic and true than trying to force all this connection,” said Shaun Higgins, the 17-year ex-Dog and Kangaroo who played under Scott in 2021 and 2022 and has a game-day role on the bench at Geelong this year.
“We are adults and it’s a professional environment here ... and we’ll treat you like adults until it’s proven otherwise.”
Jenkins observed on Scott’s bucking of the connection convention: “Everyone’s been chasing that connection ... I think a lot of clubs would like having coffees and catch-ups.”
But in Scott-land, these catch-ups and connections are not pushed.
“The Christian Petracca situation just wouldn’t happen at the Cats,” said Jenkins. “The guys just don’t pry into each other’s business at the Cats.”
Whereas some coaches – and Alastair Clarkson would appear to be a prime example – have been heavily involved in players’ lives (“father figure” is often deployed in this context), Scott does not, as a rule, seek to intrude into players’ personal lives.
“He doesn’t need to be a huge influence in their personal stuff,” said Neil Balme, the veteran football boss, who with Cook and current CEO Steve Hocking, chose Scott in that post-season of 2010 after a burnt-out Mark Thompson left.
“But he’s close enough for them to know he gives a stuff about them.”
Another former official who knows Scott well added: “He empowers rather than delegates.”
3. Planning to the nth degree
In the lead-in to the 2022 grand final, the cerebral Scott’s pre-game preparation went to the extreme of war-gaming what to do in extra time if there was a draw at the end of the four quarters – a tale skipper Joel Selwood recounted in his book.
Geelong coach Chris Scott and skipper Joel Selwood with the 2022 premiership cup.Credit: Getty Images
“I think he treats his coaching career much like a tennis player like Novak Djokovic,” said Jenkins of the attention to detail. “He leaves no stone unturned. He’s always just thinking and happy to engage in stuff.”
While obsessive preparation is hardly novel for coaches, Scott is also willing to shift plans rapidly, mid-game.
4. A player-centred club
Many clubs profess to be focused on the players. Scott, according to former players/officials, takes the stance that everything that happens in his domain ultimately is about making an environment in which players flourish.
“A lot of coaches in the league say it, that they’re there for the players,” said Higgins. “Ultimately that’s shown through actions and decisions that are made. And everything that he does, and every decision he’s made, aligns with that commentary.
“He creates an environment that is for the players to then take. Some players take that opportunity and others don’t.
“But probably the one strength for him is he’s got unbelievable emotional awareness around players and what gets the best out of them.”
5. Mature teams and covering his weaknesses
In Scott’s 14 years as senior coach, the mature Cats have ranked in the top three for experience in games/age 12 times; only once (2018) have they ranked outside the top five on that score.
This is a reflection of Scott and Geelong’s view, which is on public record, that the club seeks to have a crack at contending every year, even if this is not possible.
One by-product of these mature teams has been that the Cats have a culture that is heavily influenced by the senior players.
Higgins, who was coached by Brad Scott at North Melbourne (where he played his best football) and sees the brothers as philosophically “aligned”, said there was “a level playing field” in discourse between senior players and the coach.
“If the senior players needed something or had an opinion on something, then that would hold more weight than his opinion in many regards,” he said.
Shaun Higgins the Geelong player in 2021.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
No other club has averted a rebuild, of some description, during Scott’s 14 seasons; Gold Coast, arguably, have remained in that state.
Jenkins felt that if Scott had a weakness, it lay in his communication with younger players.
“Probably the relationship stuff with younger players (is his weakness), but again, he’s got that covered because he knows how to put excellent people in that space.” Nigel Lappin, his ex-teammate at Brisbane and long-serving assistant, was among the lieutenants who had a natural rapport with the younger brigade.
It was notable, according to another official who spoke anonymously, that Scott was willing to entrust youngsters with responsibility.
6. Conviction – he doesn’t care what others think
Scott stuck with Rhys Stanley, 33, and Gary Rohan, as Jenkins said, against the grain of external opinion. He pushed Marc Blicavs upfield when others felt he should stay at full-back. Harry Taylor played forward for much of a season (2017).
“He doesn’t care if other people think he’s wrong,” said one of his former offsiders.
“He’s very strong in what he believes,” added Balme. “And still got a real capacity to listen to others.”
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