GEELONG coach Chris Scott has refused to say whether he believes Josh Hunt pulled out of a contest during the first quarter of Friday night's loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

Hunt was criticised by Matthew Lloyd and Wayne Carey after the veteran defender appeared to drop his head when attempting to mark as Dane Swan surged towards him.

Watch the incident

Scott said at Simonds Stadium on Tuesday morning: "We accept that the external observers are paid to make comment.

"I'm not going to engage in any public assessment of Josh. We question ourselves internally every day, in virtually everything we do.

"The only thing I'll say is that those things stay in-house and Josh has our utmost support.

"We welcome the external criticisms or otherwise of our performance, but it won't affect the way we handle things internally.

"He needs to know that he has our support, and he knows that, unequivocally."

Scott remains adamant that his team is improving, despite losing its past two games to Adelaide and Collingwood.

The Cats are currently 10th on the ladder with a 4-4 record, although if they'd kicked a bit straighter against the Magpies they would be in the top eight.

"We think we're playing OK," Scott said.

"A few really costly skill errors - uncharacteristic skill errors - late in the [Collingwood] game probably cost us as much as anything.

"We thought that in terms of our intent, our effort, all those of things, we were pretty good, and we think we'll continue to get better in a lot of areas.

"We're really disappointed the result didn't go our way, but in terms of the way we're playing, we think we're building and will get better.

"We still have complete faith that our best is good enough."

While Geelong's chances of finishing in the top four appear to be fading, the coach certainly isn't panicking as he prepares for Friday night's clash with the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

"We had a bad one against Adelaide," Scott said. "As we stand here now, I think most people accept that Adelaide are a pretty good side.

"In every other game we've been extremely competitive.

"We always felt that our season would build, off the back of a solid pre-season, albeit an abbreviated one compared to other clubs.

"We are designing our year to play our best footy when it counts.

"Now, you've got to make sure that you get there, so you're competing when it counts, but all things we've put in place suggest that we will improve."

Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol.