Geelong coach Chris Scott says the Cats had a “really bad night” but won’t be panicking after a 47-point loss to the Western Bulldogs tempered their top four chances on Saturday night.
Scott was perplexed by his side’s failure to adapt to the wet conditions it has often thrived in as he said several important players clearly looked “off” and others carried ailments into the clash.
He only had limited knowledge of a hamstring complaint which forced the late withdrawal of wet weather specialist Tom Atkins for Brandan Parfitt, but hoped Atkins would be fit to return against North Melbourne in Hobart next Saturday.
“He’s good in those conditions, so that was disappointing, but we just had so many off that I’m not sure Tom could’ve made up for all of them,” Scott said after the loss.
“My understanding is it’s some sort of neural hamstring. They’re optimistic he could be right.”
Scott said the second late withdrawal of Shannon Neale was due to “more the conditions” as the key forward looks set to be available along with Tanner Bruhn for the Kangaroos clash.
Bruhn had 35 disposals, seven tackles and kicked 1.1 in a seamless return from a scaphoid fracture in the VFL curtain raiser on Saturday.
He shapes as a welcome return after the Cats’ midfield was well beaten in the first half and conceded five goals for the match to Adam Treloar and Ed Richards.
“I think (Bruhn will play), that’s looking likely. It’s great that he got through,” Scott said.
“I’ve said a few times he’s been training really hard – the wrist allowed him to do plenty of running and he’s been handling the ball for a little bit, so that’s a positive sign that he got through.”
Scott said the final quarter “looked really bad” but the Bulldogs’ unanswered five-goal onslaught was just a by-product of the Cats going all-out to try to win the game.
“I thought it was an uncharacteristic performance. If that happens regularly, you just become a bad team – I don’t think that’s us at the moment,” he said.
“Really late in the game we opened it up and tried to score, and then you look really bad when that doesn’t come off. We’ll do our best not to drop our bundle.”
The coach said Jeremy Cameron (six disposals and 1.1) was one of the Cats who “had an off night”, but lamented the quality of the delivery to the forwards as Rory Lobb reeled in nine marks in defence.
“We just picked them out, almost as if we were trying,” he said.
“We had a really bad night, and that was pretty clear from early in the game.”
