In short:
The Cats let a 33-point half-time lead, plus a guaranteed double chance in finals, slip in Saturday night’s loss to St Kilda.
Chris Scott says his players “knew what was at stake”.
What’s next?
The Cats must beat West Coast at Kardinia Park next Saturday to secure a top-four spot.
Geelong is attempting to quickly move on from failing to lock in an AFL top-four berth with a round to go in the home-and-away season.
The Cats let a 33-point half-time lead, plus a guaranteed double chance in finals, slip in Saturday night’s loss to St Kilda at Docklands.
Geelong is fourth on the ladder with 56 points, sitting behind Sydney (64), Port Adelaide (60) and GWS (60) and just ahead of Brisbane (54).
The Cats must beat West Coast at Kardinia Park next Saturday to guarantee a top-four spot, while a home qualifying final appears unlikely.
Coach Chris Scott said he did not need to spell out to his players just how costly the 16.11 (107) to 14.5 (89) defeat to the Saints had been.
“They’re not morons and the missed opportunity bit … clearly we’re disappointed. We knew what was at stake,” Scott said.
“So the question now is, how much do you dwell on that missed opportunity, as opposed to how much you focus on the opportunity that’s in front of us? And that’s very clear too now.
“We know what we have to do.
“Everyone’s had their moments in terms of missed opportunity. I don’t know of a team in the comp that hasn’t been ruing certain sections of the season.
“As much as anything, the challenge seems to be not allowing that to snowball. So that’s what we’ll be focusing on.”
Scott said his side would quickly move on to the Eagles match.
“We have a choice,” he said.
“We can sort of accept that this is a huge blow to us, or we can move forward really quickly and reinforce what we can do, which I think is our likely course of action.
“Not many teams have a chance to be sitting here with one game to go in the season thinking, ‘If we win that, we’re going finish top four’.”
AAP
Posted , updated
