Geelong coach Chris Scott reviews his team’s 21-point loss to the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
On Adelaide’s strong start…
“Their pressure was really good. (They had) a couple of goals early from good pressure… free kicks, one good tackle, one forced high tackle… It was disappointing for us that they beat us around the ball the way they did, particularly the clearances. We were minus 19 clearances at three-quarter time. It was the biggest reason we were six or seven goals down, especially with the way the numbers were distributed around the ground. There was no reason, in terms of the numerical advantage, that they should have won the clearances by 20. There are other parts as well… we feel like we can play better than that. But, they were good around the ball and their pressure was really good. They’re a kicking team and they play for territory a fair bit. When you get a team that wants to play that way and then they beat you around the ball and in the clearances by 20, the game is on their terms.”
On Geelong’s poor ball security…
“We’ve played in slippery conditions and handled the ball better than that… it was perfect (weather) tonight. Their pressure was good, you’ve got to be careful – especially in the immediate aftermath – not to talk about how poor we were, as the opposition always have a part to play in that. Even when we had reasonable looks away from their pressure, we just weren’t clean enough. Even the shots early… they kicked 5.1 while we kicked 1.4. They were cleaner than us and used the ball better, no doubt.”
On a firing Crows midfield…
“(They had) four players around the clearances – (Hugh) Greenwood, both the Crouch boys and (Rory) Sloane - that were really good around it. They have some pretty good continuity, so it says they had four guys that were around the clearances a lot and that our clearance effort was poor.”
On Patrick Dangerfield’s week…
“It felt like a bit of a circus. I was isolated from it for the most part. I felt he was okay. Like a lot of players every weekend, he was less than his best physically, but good enough to play. I thought he kept battling away. We didn’t get the game on our terms for very long… it wasn’t until late that we were able to play the way we would have liked to right from the start. We gave ourselves a sneaky chance, but he was far from our worst. It appears that he’s pulled up okay, so in retrospect and on what wasn’t a great night for us, (playing him) was seemingly a good decision.
“He played more forward than he would normally, especially early in the game. We’d prefer to use him a little more around the ball… but I’m weary of using that as an excuse for our performance in and around the ball. Every team (has players they’d like at full strength)… they would have liked to have Lever as well.”
