HIS TEAM almost squandered a four-goal lead against Fremantle on Saturday night, but Geelong coach Chris Scott is treating it as “fantastic practice” for the rest of the season. 

"When you take a step back, I suspect in a couple of days we'll say what fantastic practice for the big games coming up in the rest of the season," he said.

Nevertheless, Scott took the unusual step of addressing his men on the ground after the final siren, and said it was in response to the way they dropped their guard in the last 10 minutes.

"I tend not to talk to the players post-game, generally because I don't want emotion to cloud anything that I say," he said.

"But there were a few really specific things.

"It wasn't anything to do with effort. It was particularly to do with certain structural things that were black and white. We talked about doing this and we did that.

"Given I wasn't going to talk to them when they came in, I thought I'd seize the moment.

"The positive is I reckon there are really easy fixes. If we do that, we'll be even harder to beat."

Scott admitted feeling helpless as Dockers midfielder David Mundy kicked for goal after the final siren.

Mundy had the chance to win the match with a shot from 50m out, but his kick faded wide. 

"It was tense," Scott said. "For the last 30 seconds or so, I guess we felt pretty helpless in the box, because there's not much you can do from that far away.

"But it must have been a great game to watch. Every contest counted for the last probably 15 minutes of the game. 

"I thought overall it was a positive performance. We were good against good opposition.

"I think we gave them a chance. They were good enough to almost take their chance."

Scott was effusive in his praise for key defender Harry Taylor, who was clearly the best player on the ground.

Taylor gathered 27 disposals and took 19 marks, nine of which were intercept marks.

"We thought he was outstanding," Scott said. "He helped our attack. He obviously defended spectacularly.

"But when you have a defender that marks the opposition kicks inside 50, that really helps. It obviously helps you attack and gives everyone a little bit of a breather as well.

"If he's not the best in the business at that, he's pretty close."

As expected, Steve Johnson and Ryan Crowley went toe-to-toe for most of the game.

Johnson was involved in numerous scuffles with Crowley and other Freo players, and he finished with just 15 disposals. 

"The one thing that Johnno has got to understand, has to, is that he's a better player than these blokes," Scott, who worked as an assistant coach at Fremantle before joining Geelong, said. "I know it from personal experience.

"If he plays footy, they don't beat him. In terms of (Crowley's game), I don't think he had a big impact."

As for the incident in which Johnson's boot collected Lachie Neale in the head during the first quarter, Scott said he didn't see it.

Having snapped its two-game losing streak against Fremantle, Geelong is now all but assured of a spot in the top four. The Cats are three wins clear of fifth-placed Port Adelaide with three games to play.

But Scott wasn't crowing about the situation.

"The overwhelming sense will be that we've got a lot of work to do," he said. "We've got to ramp it up."

Twitter: @AFL_AdamMcNicol