Chris Scott spoke to media on Friday ahead of Geelong’s Round 11 clash with Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the press conference, presented by Morris Finance.

Scott on the impact of Covid restrictions on preparation…

I think we are one of the fortunate clubs at this stage in that we have some certainty over what yesterday, today and tomorrow looks like. The game is going on as scheduled all be it with no crowds which will be a little bit of shift obviously, but we have some recent history to draw on there and know that it is going to feel a little bit different for our players, but we feel really prepared going into the game.

Scott on confidence team will have to generate it’s on energy with no crowds this week…

I think the experience last year will help a lot. It is obviously everyone’s preference to have a crowd there, but the reality is it is the same for both teams. I think the people that suffer the most are the fans but hopefully we will get a bigger audience on TV, and we can go some way to helping put a pause on boredom for a couple of hours.  

Scott on Geelong’s preferred ruck combination…

We are happy with the contingent we have got both in the AFL team at the moment and in the broader squad. It has been a little while since we have had all of those guys up and available for selection, so we are probably in the phase of the season where we are a little bit horses for courses and there may be a time where we think a better or a different ruck structure might be called for and that surely brings Darcy Fort and Rhys Stanley back into the frame. So, it’s a little bit more of a combination we are preferring to go with now as opposed to isolating individuals.

Scott on whether Cam Guthrie was touch and go for selection…

To an extent. He hasn’t done much contact work during the week, but it looked pretty clear early on that he was going to be able to play. As always within our system and we know everyone is a bit different on this one, but we pick players on Thursday night if we think they’re any chance to play so our expectation is that he will play, and he will be fine, but we tend to leave those decisions as late as we possibly can.

Scott on if the Cooper Stephens injury could open up a mid-season draft opportunity…

Our position on the mid-season draft has always been that our club will be prepared if a spot does open up. Its only become quite a recent development that Cooper could potentially go onto that spot, but we are taking our time to see how Cooper responds post-surgery. It is a possibility that a spot could open up because we suspect that Cooper will be on the longer-term end, but we are keeping our powder dry a little bit and our options open for at least a few more days. Probably that decision will be made early next week.

Scott on potential of going into a hub…

If they tell us to go Saturday night, we will be ready, and I think that’s the approach we took last year. We had a good experience on the road. Although a good experience shouldn’t be read as 'it was all fun and games, it was enjoyable and it was a preference' - it certainly wasn’t, but I can say hand on heart that our club and our footy department have prospered through this period. It has been hard, and it hasn’t been something I’d wish upon anyone into the future, but I think we have a closer footy department than we’ve had even previously. So, we will be ready to go but we haven’t had any indication that is the likelihood.

Scott on Collingwood’s form…

We are expecting it to be tough. I think you only have to look at their first quarters over the whole season to be honest, but especially over the past couple of weeks that’d be feeling good about themselves at quarter time up at the SCG against the Swans and against one of the better teams in the competitions they had control of the game at quarter time on the weekend too. So, we are fully expecting it to be tight and tough early and we will try and play our game. Collingwood, even though they’ve had their challengers, one thing that has held up is the way they’ve been able to defend so we wouldn’t be anticipating that it’s going to be a shootout.