Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Football
Netball
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Scott criticises sub rule following Grand Final loss
Nicholas Quinlan • September 27th, 2025 10:31 pm
Geelong coach Chris Scott in his post-game press conference has called out the need for having the substitute rule following their Grand Final loss.
In his second Grand Final loss in his 15-season career, Scott’s men were overrun in the second half to see the Lions once again claim the premiership.
One of the key moments/decisions for the Cats during the game was whether to sub Jeremy Cameron out of the game.
With a suspected arm fracture according to Scott, following his collision with Patrick Dangerfield in the second quarter, the Cats decided to keep the reigning Coleman Medallist on the ground.
Cameron would try his best to have an impact with a heroic tackle on Jaspa Fletcher in the third which appeared to have aggravated it even further.
But when asked about the seriousness of Cameron’s injury, Scott stated that he will be rapt to see the sub rule being removed, noting that both teams had injuries coming into the match.
“I’ll say one thing, and I hope this doesn’t sound like sour grapes,” Scott said in his post-game press conference.
“I think we all, and I am at the head of the queue, will be rapt to see the back of the sub rule.
‘That was really, besides the seriousness of the injury, with the challenges there, make planning difficult.
“And it feels like a bit of déjà vu in a respect that we were sort of waiting, waiting, waiting and didn’t feel like we could make that sub until we had some clarity there.
“In the heat of the moment, is it a crack, is it a decent break? Can he play? Can’t he?
“And that took a long time to work out.”
Following that, he was asked about where the game went wrong for the Cats, with the veteran coach admitting that there were several reasons for their downfall, which he will be thinking about throughout the summer.
“In a real arm-wrestle, they just got a couple of goals late and we didn’t quite set the ground up the way we would’ve liked that gave them those opportunities,” he said.
“Scores were level at half-time, close enough to level halfway through the third quarter. But it was rare we thought the game was going the way we wanted.
“There were various reasons for that, so I’ll be thinking about them at 3am often over the next couple of months.”
