Two-time Geelong premiership coach Chris Scott has responded fiercely to questions over both the umpiring and injury assessment surrounding of a key player after his side’s 20-point win over Collingwood on Friday night.
Scott was more than open to discussing the at-times contentious umpiring throughout the match, after earlier labelling his side’s form “better than any stage” this year.
But conversely, the two-time premiership coach blatantly refused to reveal any details over a potential HIA (Head Injury Assessment) on star player Tom Stewart.
Watch every game of every round this Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >
Geelong marking themselves into finals | 03:25
Stewart, who was one of the Cats’ better players on the night, was involved in a heavy collision with Lachie Schultz at the start of the last quarter – with the Pie subbed out not long after with concussion.
And with the potential for similar symptoms for Stewart given the impact of the incident, Scott was asked post-game on whether or not the five-time All-Australian defender underwent a HIA.
“It’s a question I can’t answer, and to be brutally honest, I just refuse to answer those questions,” Scott begun by saying.
“One, because I don’t know, but most importantly I don’t ask; I don’t want anything to do with that stuff.”
Not long after his response on Stewart’s potential injury, Channel 7 journalistMitch Cleary probed Scott on whether he believed there was an ‘overemphasis’ on the adjudication of kicks deemed less than 15 metres on Friday night.
And admirably, Scott wasn’t short on words – beyond his initial answer.
Below is a transcript of Cleary’s interaction with Scott on the aforementioned officiating:
Cleary: Did you feel tonight that there was an overemphasis on how far the ball’s gone (deemed less than 15 metres)?
Scott: “Yep.”
Cleary: Did you have any awareness tonight that they would be looking at that closer?
Scott: Nup. But it was clear wasn’t it, right from the start. It was like: ‘Oh, that’s the way they’re picking that one up.
It’s a really, really difficult one to adjudicate, because in the moment, you’ve got to work out whether the ball’s gone 15 metres; you only get a split second to work out whether you’re going to blow the whistle or not – and then, you’ve got to work out ‘am I watching the ball carrier to see if he’s played on, or am I watching the man on the mark to see if he’s abusing the stand rule’; so it’s difficult.
Cleary: Would you have preferred some sort of communication before you’d run out there?
Scott:Well only if it was communicated to them (the umpires); sometimes it’s just circumstance, sometimes it’s just four guys who like ‘well I saw him be a bit harsh on that one (free kick), so in order for us to be consistent, I’m going to be a bit harsher on it as well’ – and then it snowballs. They can only communicate things that they’re communicating to their umpires.
But I’m just going to say what I think about this stuff from now on – but don’t take it as criticism necessarily, it’s just we shouldn’t cover our eyes and say ‘oh no, that didn’t happen’; it did! You saw it, I saw it – it’s fine. And you know what, the next game there’ll be something where you’ll go: ‘Oh, geez that wasn’t quite right’ – because it’s a hard game to umpire, and we’ve all got to get used to it. If you expect perfection from them, you’ll just end up so frustrated.
The current AFL coaching landscape | 05:55
Scott went back to the well again later in the press conference, this time going in to bat for the umpires who are tasked with a multitude of instructions week-by-week; often dependant on whichever rule is under public scrutiny leading into a match.
“Maybe it’s good for the game that they say ‘well I’m going to be 100 per cent sure that’s gone 15 metres, or I’m just going to call play on – that may well be a good thing … if they’ve made a conservative decision to do that, they should tell us.” Scott added.
“But they can’t tell us everything – sorry to keep going back to this, because I don’t want to sound like I’m critical of them; I’m actually trying to defend them. It’s not up to them to coach something during the week and coach 15 things perhaps, and there might be a controversial decision; it’s hard for them to communicate all of that to us.
“And I’m not sure I even want it, because then we might focus on a whole lot of things that might not even happen, and we’d taking our eyes off what we need to do.
“Do you want me to shut up, do you?” Scott then joked to three-time premiership Cat and current club General Manager Andrew Mackie, who was sitting at the back of the room.
Beyond his strong answers regarding the officiating and injury assessments of his players, Scott gave his side praise earlier in the conference for what is now their third win on the trot.
“We’re certainly going better now than what we have at any stage during the year – and tonight was good, because I didn’t think by any stretch it was a perfect performance,” Scott said.
“When you’re playing a quality team like that who kind of like coming from behind – even though we felt like we had control of the game – it was a risky situation; I thought our guys executed the plan pretty well.
“Even when we were under pressure at times, I thought we were able to stick to that plan – and that’s a good sign for the weeks ahead, because hopefully we’ll be under pressure a lot, because that means you’re a good team playing in big games.”
Scott’s side took a whopping 145 marks; a blatant indication as to how much control Geelong had over an undersized Collingwood outfit who had 70 less.
The Cats will look to make it a month without a loss next Saturday night against the Western Bulldogs down at GMHBA Stadium – with Tanner Bruhn a chance to return for the clash from a scaphoid injury in his wrist.