Speaking on Geelong’s official podcast, To the Final Bell, Coach Chris Scott speaks publicly for the first time about the significant changes that helped deliver a premiership in 2011.
When Scott first walked through the doors at GMHBA Stadium as senior coach, over confidence wasn’t a problem, in fact he felt a little daunted. He was 34 years of age and only six months older than veteran Darren Milburn.
“It was pretty easy to be humble walking into the footy club that had been so successful and so well run,” Scott said.
“I guess the issue for me was if I thought I had some things that I wanted to change, that there wasn’t going to be the view within the playing group in particular that is a direction it should go and it would be a real challenge then.”
Some advice from former coach Leigh Matthews and Tom Harley was followed by a meeting with senior players.
“My fears were set aside within the first couple of weeks when I sat down with key players and we just had general conversation about what was really good about the way the club was setup and what might be a couple of things we can change and almost to a man, we were able to align up on the things we needed to shift a little bit.”
“In a way I think my job would have been harder if the Cats had of won the premiership in 2010 because they would have been sure about the way they were going about things, but it was clear after that Collingwood loss in the prelim(final) that some things needed to change and most of them were aligned.”
When reflecting on the success of 2011, Scott highlights the significant change the club implemented to help deliver a flag.
“I think I probably hadn’t said it publicly at all, but when I look back on where we ended up in 2011 from where we started there was significant change.”
It was very different and part of it was the natural evolution of the game and you have to move with the times a little bit, but even the way the game was being played, rotations at that point – there were obvious things that needed to change.”
“An example was defensively. We were a completely different system by 2011 compared to the one in 2010 and that is impossible to do unless you have a really cohesive playing group and one that’s driven to make it work.”
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