GEELONG coach Chris Scott says his team has “no right” to finish in the top four this season.
Speaking after the Cats defeated a highly competitive Fremantle, Scott said his players were too inconsistent.
“I think it’s really tight,” he said.
“We’ve got a tough couple of weeks coming up, which will sort of help sort it out, but to be frank, our priority is not trying to finish as high as possible, although that would be a nice outcome. Our priority is working on our game so that when the really important stuff comes at the end of the year, we’re close to our best. And if we do that, we give ourselves a chance.
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“We have shown that we have no right to consider ourselves a top four team this year because we are too inconsistent. So if we can find the consistency and improve our game, even if we finish fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth we will be hard to beat.”
After jumping to the defence of out-of-form forward Tom Hawkins and the enigmatic Steven Motlop during the week, Scott was full of praise for the pair after the Fremantle game.
Motlop had 26 possessions, but Hawkins kicked just one goal from six possessions.
“The game wasn’t perfect for Hawkins, but we loved some of the work he did around the ball,” Scott said.
“He was really strong over the ball in our forward 50 when the game was there to be won. I thought Motlop took steps forward, as well.”
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Scott also praised Josh Cowan, who played his first game for 2016 after playing just five games in the previous five seasons.
And he explained there was no pressure on Mitch Clark, who was dropped back to the VFL after making just one appearance for the Cats.
But he reserved his greatest praise for Brownlow Medal favourite Patrick Dangerfield.
“He was great around the ball,” Scott said.
“His intensity at the contest, to keep his feet and stay in the contest even though he hasn’t got best position, is really solid and that’s Selwood’s strength as well, really.
“But the thing that probably separated his (Dangerfield’s) game tonight is the fact that he was able to go forward when we were struggling and hit the scoreboard as well.”
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Scott said Lachie Henderson, who was concussed when he ran back into a marking contest and was collected by Chris Mayne, was “obviously sore”.
“Sometimes it can look horrible and recover quickly and sometimes it is innocuous, you seem fine and three days later you are still struggling,” Scott said.
“We will just have to be patient on that one.”
Daniel Menzel's face says it all on Friday night. Picture: AFL Media
