Geelong coach Chris Scott is adamant his and his gamers are “not panicking” regardless of beginning a season 0-2 for the primary time in eight years.
Scott labelled celebrity Jeremy Cameron a ”particular participant” for his effort within the loss to Carlton however conceded some excessive degree gamers are “a bit off”.
Cameron performed probably the greatest video games of his stellar profession, racking up 25 disposals, eight marks and 6 objectives nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient for Geelong who went down by eight factors.
The Cats have change into the primary reigning premiers to lose their first two video games since Hawthorn in 2009, and the final time Geelong did so in 2015, it was the one time they’ve missed the finals up to now 16 seasons.
The Hawks didn’t make the highest eight 14 years in the past, both, however with Tom Stewart (knee), Jack Henry (foot), Jake Kolodjashnij (concussion), Mitch Duncan (calf) and Sam Menegola (knee) all nonetheless to come back again into the workforce, Scott wasn’t pushing the panic button simply but.
“We always knew that it was going to be a hard year,” Scott mentioned after the Cats misplaced to Carlton by eight factors on the MCG on Thursday night time.
“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 mentioned it was onerous to gauge how far off their greatest the Cats have been, he mentioned they have been “miles away” from producing ”unfavorable momentum” which might 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 mentioned.
“Some guys that have been high-level players for us are a bit off.”
A decimated defence, which is at present lacking Stewart, Henry, Kolodashnij and Duncan, who additionally performed down there final yr, has been one of many predominant the reason why the Cats are at present off kilter.
“That causes a real reshuffle that kind of came to us late in the pre-season,” Scott mentioned.
“It’s not as if we had three months to prepare for that.”
For the second week in a row, Geelong have been undone by opposition leg pace and stress, in addition to lopsided disposal (382-328) and mark (110-69) counts, however Scott wasn’t too involved about these parts in the long run.
“If teams think that they should just keep it (the ball) off us, then we’ll be OK with that,” Scott mentioned.
Another clutch of key gamers in Cameron, Sam De Koning, Zach Tuohy and Rhys Stanley copped some heavy hits towards the Blues, however Scott was assured the star quartet could be out there to face Gold Coast in 10 days’ time.
Duncan can also be an opportunity to line up towards the Suns for his first sport of 2023.
Originally printed as Geelong first AFL premier to lose opening two video games since 2009
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
