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📻 IMPORTANT AUCKLAND UPDATE 📻
Chris Scott’s “little dig” to critics of Geelong’s late changes
Andrew Slevison • April 16th, 2025 12:47 pm
Geelong coach Chris Scott won’t be changing the club’s selection process anytime soon.
The Cats have frequently made late changes over the journey including several already in season 2025.
Bailey Smith was pulled out of the Round 2 clash with St Kilda an hour before the bounce, followed by Tom Stewart, who was a late out against Brisbane with a knee complaint in Round 3.
In Round 4 against Melbourne, Mark Blicavs was ruled out with illness late, followed by Stewart once again in last Thursday night’s Gather Round opener against Adelaide.
Some believe they are playing tactical funny buggers with their late outs, but Scott insists that is not the case.
He says he doesn’t care what people think, especially the gambling fraternity who seem to be the loudest when criticising Geelong’s apparent shenanigans.
Tom Morris asked the Cats coach on Channel 9’s Footy Classifed: “News or noise - Geelong gets a bit cheeky with its late outs?”
Scott replied: “Noise.
“There’s two parts to it. One, I don’t care what anything thinks.
“And especially, can I just have a little dig at the people who bet on footy - I really don’t care about them.
“But secondly, we tend to wait as long as we can. So you get an hour before you’ve got to select your team.”
A clip was shown of a flustered Scott prior to the Demons game when Blicavs was a late out with gastro, replaced by Rhys Stanley.
The two-time premiership coach explained why he appeared unsettled when explaining the move to Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon and Jordan Lewis.
“I was a bit flustered there because we had Blicavs who was crook, and we knew four or five hours before that he wasn’t going to play,” Scott continued.
“We don’t announce it until an hour before (the game). So get used to that, we won’t change that.
“The reason I was flustered is because that was right on the hour before the game that we needed to name our team and Jack Henry was 50-50 with a foot issue. I was trying to do the numbers on the run.
“As I said I don’t really care, but I can’t think of a time where we’ve deliberately tried to muck around.”
The 3-2 Cats, on the back of that epic 19-point win over the Crows, next suit up against Hawthorn in a blockbuster Easter Monday fixture at the MCG.
All eyes will be on them to see if there are any more late changes prior.
