GEELONG is making a habit of conceding multiple goals late in games, but Chris Scott is unfazed.

The Cats were 63 points up four minutes into the final term of their clash with Port Adelaide at Simonds Stadium on Saturday.

However, they conceded six unanswered goals in the remainder of the game, which reduced their winning margin to just 25 points.

"If you're glass half-empty, you'd say towards the end of the game the cue was in the rack a little bit and we were probably thinking about things other than the moment, and we allowed Port to score a little bit to easily," Scott said.

"That part's a bit disappointing, but we'll keep it in perspective. I thought it was an outstanding performance for big parts of the game.

"When the game was really on the line and needed to be won, I was very pleased with aspects of our game.

"Certainly our efficiency with the ball was a lot better this week.

"Probably an un-noticed part of our game last week [against North Melbourne] was the fact that we just gave the ball back to the opposition when we had some really good scoring chances.

"Today we were able to put them [Port Adelaide] to the sword when the game was really on."

Many clubs that are in finals contention put their players through heavy training loads at this time of the year.

But Scott was keen to discount that as a reason why his team has had poor last quarters against the Brisbane Lions, Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

"We train differently all through the year, so I think it would be a mistake to put it down to that," he said.

"I tend to treat each one in isolation as well. If you dig really deep you can see a little bit of a pattern there, but I'd much rather be 50 or 60 points up and let them have a few cheap ones at the end of the game.

"Maybe we open ourselves up to those questions because we play so well early and go out to a big lead and people expect us to push on.

"But when you consider everything in perspective, we're in a pretty good position, and we're taking the glass half-full approach."

Scott was happy with the performance of key defender Jared Rivers, who played his first game since suffering a knee injury in round five.

The addition of Rivers to Geelong's backline allowed Harry Taylor to sneak forward and boot three goals.

"We thought he was pretty good," Scott said of Rivers.

Another of the five players who came into the Cats' side for the clash with Port Adelaide, big man Josh Walker, injured his wrist after flying into a pack during the first quarter.

But he played out the game and finished with 11 disposals, five marks and a goal.

With Trent West and Mark Blicavs dropped to the VFL, Walker and Nathan Vardy carried the rucking load.

Although it seems unlikely to happen, the Cats have not ruled out using Saturday’s pair in those roles in the finals.

"We're not assuming that was the best that Walker and Vardy will play," Scott said.

"There's no doubt in our mind that Vardy can be a number one ruckman."

Geelong racked up a season-high 171 interchanges during the win over Port.

The early substitution of midfielder Mitch Duncan, due to concussion, was a factor in that high total.

But Scott said "it was not a concerted effort to rotate more. If you want my frank assessment of that, I'd prefer to have a lot fewer than 170 rotations. I think that hurts you.

"We certainly don't call 170 rotations from the box. I'll go back and review it."

Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol