Geelong coach Chris Scott spoke to the media after the game...
Q: Could you ask for anything more from that tonight? Such a special night for the club.
A: No, it’s rare to play that well against such a good team. It wasn’t that the good performance from our end was completely unexpected. We also acknowledge the challenges they’ve got. It’s also a rare situation when you’ve got a couple of dominant key forwards against a team that’s just been decimated in terms of their key defensive stocks. So we kind of modelled our whole range of scenarios and Mills on Hawkins was still one that we left out. Such was the challenge that was in front of them and the esteem which they hold him. So we’re aware of all that stuff. Still a really good performance and still early in the year, but we file like we’re moving the right way.
Q: Seeing someone like Sam Simpson come in like he did, and that first couple of minutes kicked a goal, and you see the team coming around him, how special is that on what’s already a special night for the club?
A: It’s really special. I think if you’re involved in footy for a long period of time, part of the challenge of being sort of optimistic about your career and your future is having to endure the really difficult times. It’s easy when you see...because most people just see the outcome game day, but they don’t see the dreary kind of repetitive work in rehab. So Sam’s obviously been through a long period when he was in that position, but for even, you know, bigger periods, it looked like he wasn’t going back at all. He had a history of soft-tissue injuries, he’s done a power of work on for the remedy, but it was the concussion issues that were really worrying. I’m proud of the way our club handled the situation. He was given the space that he needed, but we had a lot of faith in the sort of player that he could become and the investment that the whole sort of club has put in him I think will pay off for us. I think a few of the players have said already he’s a great teammate, they love playing with him. He’s enthusiastic. You would forgive anyone who’s been through that to mope around the club. He’s never done that, even when really struggling. His place on the list looked, if not in jeopardy, almost completely gone. But he just kept bouncing in, some positivity, just really nice when you see guys like that come through. He’s got a long way to go. It was a nice moment and worth spending a bit of time talking about.
Q: What was behind the late change tonight?
A: Jonathon Ceglar came out for personal reasons, so I don’t like talking about people’s personal issues. Suffice it to say that in the end it was good news. He’s had his first baby and just wasn’t appropriate for him to play tonight. Again, it is up to them to announce their news, but I think it’s out there they they’ve had the baby. Yeah, that’s the reason.
Q: Good to have a low-key sort of first game, Sam, he comes in as a late change?
A: I think so. Sometimes the build-up can be the hardest part. When you’re thinking about it the whole week and the late change makes it easy to come in, do your job. It was nice when we heard the news around Ceglar’s baby. It gave everyone a lift when Sam came into the team as well. Those little things, it is hard to say, but the boys were certainly up and about.
Q: What you got out of Mark Blicavs in the ruck and his clearance work, we know when the ball hits the ground, does this give you any, I guess, cause for thought that this is the best way to go as Mark as your predominant ruck?
A: Yeah, we’re always thinking about it. He is a unique player, I mean that literally. We’ll
fight hard to find someone that could play a similar role to him in the future. But I think that’s going to be difficult. There has been a strong argument for a long time that his best position is in the ruck. We’re biased towards our own players, but I look around the comp and I wouldn’t want anyone before him in that position, given what he gives as a package. It’s nice to have the flexibility. We’ve got those options. I would be surprised if that’s the way we go all the time, but it’s nice to know that we can do it. But we’ve known that for a while. It’s not a surprise to us that he played the way he did tonight.
Q: You said you’ve been building. Is there a particular area you feel like you took a big step
forward in to night?
A: I think the first three weeks we identified some issues that were almost beyond our control a little bit. We took some ... I wouldn’t even call them risks because we knew that, say, Hawkins, for example, was going to take time to build into the year and then we lost a lot of defenders all at once, which I think as we saw Sydney tonight, it cripples you when you lose a lot of players. One particular part of the ground. The part that was in our control that we were really disappointed with in the first three weeks was our work around the ball. I think those guys have really lifted the last three weeks. Irrespective of the challenges of the Swans, over a fair period of time they’ve been pretty good around the midfield. I wouldn’t underrate that performance tonight.