Scott on managing the new Finals structure

It is an interesting question, but is just hard to answer with any clarity because we haven't been there before.

Even when you have had some experience with the Finals series, my take on it and I guess my experience has convinced me that every year is unique. You can go in saying that top four is critical because of our experience last year, then it sort of changes a bit.

There are nuances within our system that mean that you could finish third and end up getting a really tough run, for whatever reason.

I haven't done the numbers, but I suspect you could finish 10th and actually get a pretty clean run through.

So the takeaway for me is, don't waste any time wishing for certain outcomes. I think it has largely been true that finishing higher is better, but it is not necessarily a guarantee. 

Scott on the potential Mullin match-up on Nick Daicos

It is hard to think that we would do anything else, but they have got some players in really good form.

If you look at them closely over the year, they have been like a lot of teams where their good has been very, very good and they have had some patches where they have struggled a bit. Sometimes that can be due to player availability, form, even now they still have some really good players out.

Darcy Moore in particular, sometimes replacing those guys takes a period of time, it is not just a matter of bringing one guy in and then it fixes it. You need some time for some cohesion to build and unfortunately for us, it looks like that cohesion has been built with them.

De Goey is another example of a guy who looks to be in really good form, we have always rated him really highly.

You think about the various roles that our midfielders will play, Oisin has obviously been critical to us. But I think I am on record as saying that Daicos is the best player in the comp. 

Scott on whether Sam De Koning will be available

We think so.

I expect him to train, I haven't heard anything to the contrary yet. It was gastro, so I could walk you through the detail but I think you get it.

Hopefully those things come and go pretty quickly. 

Scott on Ollie Henry's performance

We had the plan to manage him, our plan was for him not to play at all but needed him to be at the game if something happened.

On short notice, he came in and performed well. I think it speaks to his mental preparation and physical preparation, to come in and do the job.

It is nice to know because in the modern age, performance across a whole lot of sports talk about preparation being key, and it absolutely is. But sometimes, the proverbial hits the fan and you just have to deliver on short notice.

I admire those who can do that, so good on him. 

Scott on whether Mullin is relishing County Mayo's win

Yeah, he is. I guess it is bittersweet for him, because he is so happy for his really close mates, it has been such a long road for them.

There is clearly a part of him that would have loved to have been a part of it.

We were really open to it, it's just that Friday night in Melbourne to effectively 12.30am in Ireland on Sunday night, even for us it was just a bridge too far.

He was in good enough shape to stay up and watch it with his Irish mates. He is very proud of them. 

Scott on Patrick Dangerfield's availability

No, we haven't made that decision yet.

It is on the table, I think I flagged last night on AFL 360 that it is unlikely that we would take him through consecutive games for hopefully two months. Whether it is this week or not, we are not quite sure.

It will depend on how he pulls up, so we will know more after our session today. I guess the only thing I would say, it is more nuanced and hopefully more sophisticated from our perspective, than just looking at the fixture and saying he has played x number of games, so therefore he should miss here.

We have always taken that approach and we will continue to, but if you take a step back and look at the macro-plan, we have said for a long time now with Pat that it is unlikely he will play every game every season.

It is the way it has played out, but we do have a bit of experience with this now.