Scott on the Cats' form

We haven't been playing poorly in totality, but we have had patches in games over the last month or so that have been poor. We are more trying to focus in on the specifics around that stuff.

Even if you reference our game last week against Brisbane who again, played very well and not taking anything away from them, they have won the last two premierships and that sort of speaks for itself.

Even in the first quarter where they were at one stage eight goals to nothing, it wasn't as if we didn't have chances within that quarter. Certainly as the game went on, we had control of the game for large periods but just weren't good enough to get the result at the end of the day.

That is where trying to think about these things with a bit of balance is important, but nobody should mistake that for us ignoring the fact that GWS have been good against us. 

Scott on Geelong's history against GWS

Well I don't really think about the three times before that, I am assuming that they were more than a year ago.

We think about the last time that we played them, which was roughly 12 months ago, but we also concentrate much more on the recent form. I am not being evasive when I say that, I am being as honest as I possibly can. I would hate to think that when the roles are reversed, that we would lean on a record that reflected games that were played seven or eight years ago.

We don't even think about whether we set up well against teams, because we have gone through that process before where we think about why it is that these patterns emerge. There are a couple of common factors and for the most part, it is because they have been a good team so all of that stuff is real.

Some of the ways that they play have been difficult for us, so we are not dodging that stuff but if you dig into the other stuff, all of that is so different that it would largely be irrelevant anyway. 

Scott on the VFL Cats

Too hard to ignore, I wouldn't go that far, but we are very happy with the way they are going.

The VFL team collectively have been great all year, so they have been playing well as a team and there have been some individual performances in there that are exactly what we are asking for.

But that is only one part of the puzzle, there are other inputs there that we have to think about. It is a harsh reality that I am not comfortable with to be honest, but sometimes the guys that are playing the best aren't necessarily the ones that come up, because there are other factors like the roles we are looking for and the spots that might open up in the AFL team.

Again, I don't say that with any comfort, but it is the reality. 

Scott on Geelong's management strategy

I mean we always balance it a little bit, but it is not really a factor at the moment.

I would like to think that while I said we do balance that, it is very rare that we have prioritised an opposition or a game because we supposedly need to win it, over our management plans. The management generally trumps that, because I just think that every week is important.

I think the really obvious thing at the moment is that we are coming off a bye, so we have played one game post-bye and we have got seven games to go. There is the potential of another bye there if you are good enough, so at this point of the season it is a bit more around thinking through how our guys are going.

As 'Kingy' alluded to, we feel like we have got some depth at the moment. We have got a lot of guys playing well, a big group of players that we would be happy to play in the AFL team in any given week.

But that imperative to rest a few guys is not obvious to us. 

Scott on Jay Polkinghorne

He has been talked about a lot.

He is a little bit different to some of our other forwards and that is a good thing for him, because he does offer a point of difference if, and I am confident enough to say when he comes into our AFL team, that he will be different for us.

I go right back to the pre-season games, where he looked at home at the level, I probably shouldn't call it AFL level but the AFL pre-season games.

He still looked like he had something to offer, and we are bullish about the long term there. The short term is a little more challenging for him, but as I said, he is being spoken about which is a good start.