Chris Scott walked away from Geelong’s Round 11 clash with Sydney pleased with the result, but not tempted to talk himself or his side into anything bigger than that. In a post-match press conference, he said he had a high level of respect for both teams and was not sure which one was better, adding that both were in the conversation to be the best team in the competition at the moment.
For Scott, the value of the night was not just the final margin. He said it was pleasing to get the outcome, but there was no reason for Geelong to be overconfident, even against a Sydney side he said had lifted its game to another level with the way it attacks, especially from the back half. The Swans, he said, have real weapons coming out of that part of the ground, and the challenge for Geelong was to limit the damage when those moves started to flow. By his assessment, the Cats did that well enough to matter.
Sydney still had its moments. Scott said the visitors looked pretty good and efficient going forward at times, and he admitted it was frustrating when Geelong felt as though it had the run of the game but could not build enough of a buffer on the scoreboard. He pointed to Sydney’s willingness to take risks through the middle as another danger, saying that when those risks came off, the ball could move quickly and hurt opponents. Prevailing in that battle within the battle, he said, was the part of the performance he was happiest with.
That did not mean Geelong was carrying the night on the back of one player. Scott said there were several good individual performances, singling out Lawson Humphries as outstanding and saying Bailey really came into the game in the third quarter. He also said Geelong’s forwards did not look dependent on any one player, with multiple threats across the line. For a team trying to work on its game while still adapting to the opposition, that spread mattered.
Scott said he finds it difficult to forecast where the season is heading by the end of the year, even if he believes he understands the game well. That uncertainty sits behind the Cats’ current approach: keep adjusting, keep improving and avoid getting carried away by one win. On the evidence of his post-game assessment, Geelong beat one of the benchmark sides in Round 11 and left the night with a reminder that the race at the top is still wide open.
