Scott on the initial takeaways from Saturday

The first quarter wasn't ideal, the start was okay but certainly in the second quarter we got going.

I thought it was a strong performance, it was nice to see George Stevens come in and have an impact.

I don't care who you are, when you lose two of your best players pre-game, we knew about Stengle a good 24 hours out so at least we could plan a little bit for that one. But Bailey waking up sick made it a little bit harder.

You are always a bit on edge when you haven't played for a couple of weeks, not sure how you are going to come out, lose a couple of your good players, it was sort of a recipe for a bit of a slow start.

That is probably the way it played out, but I thought we arrested it pretty quickly and it was a strong performance. 

Scott on George Stevens debut

We really liked it.

I am certainly not saying that we forecast it necessarily, because we have made him bide his time a little bit in the VFL. But we were confident that he could come in and display the traits that he has shown at VFL level immediately at the AFL level.

It is rare for a very young player to come in, make his debut, play virtually as a permanent on-baller against seasoned players. You can disregard Richmond's ladder position when it comes to their midfield, you are talking Prestia, Taranto, Hopper, Nankervis is in there. They are an experienced, high quality group of players and George looked at home right from the start.

There were high expectations from us but we were confident he could deliver on that. 

Scott on the flexibility within Geelong's team

We would love to keep building a flexible group, I think the best teams in history definitely prioritise cohesion.

But unless you have that flexibility, if something goes wrong, you just can't be in a position where one or two things go wrong and it completely de-stabilises you.

Guys like Jack Bowes, even Jack Martin coming in, we chose not to use Mitch Duncan tonight because he will play VFL tomorrow.

Those sort of guys with flexibility we really value. 

Scott on the depth of the Cats list

We have thought that is important for the last decade or so, probably my whole time at Geelong we have thought that the season is a marathon.

With the benefit of hindsight, I think it has been harder in the last few years than it has ever been.

There is a couple of things there, firstly you need a bit of luck. The team that wins it always gets a bit of luck, it is true that the best team generally wins but not many teams win it when a whole lot of things go wrong.

It is hard to plan for all of that bad luck, but you can a little bit and that is probably the point of having some flexibility and some depth.

It is about managing that squad so you can have your best players up and going when it really counts.