GEELONG coach Chris Scott says his team produced one of its worst defensive efforts in his time as coach, during the Cats' 41-point loss to North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night. 

After the Cats suffered a critical defeat that has dented their finals hopes, Scott wasn't in the mood for making excuses, despite the fact the Cats endured a 20-day break – a record during the minor rounds.

"Overall it was a poor performance and we're not going to run away from it. We had way too many players that were down," Scott told the media after the game. 

WATCH: Chris Scott's full post-match press conference

"We defended tonight as poorly as I can remember … they just scored way too many easy goals. 

"I'm certainly not talking about our defenders in isolation, although I didn't think they were good tonight. There was some disorganisation, which we need to take responsibility for as a coaching group as well.

"For an experienced group and a group of players we really rate in our back half, it just looked like we were disorganised too often, and that hurt us." 

Geelong has lost three of its past four games and appears in serious danger of missing the finals for the first time since 2006, but Scott insisted he was focused on short-term improvement rather than ramifications for September.

"I think we're a bit fortunate that we're still in touch (with the top eight). 

"We've got a level of optimism with what can be achieved but we need to play better than what we are at the moment." 

Scott said it was hard to quantify the effect of the Cats' extended break, which was created by a bye and then the cancellation of last week's clash with Adelaide after the tragic death of Crows coach Phil Walsh. 

"We're not going to use that as an excuse. In fact, we saw the positives in it more than the negatives," he said. "We're really clutching at straws if we say, 'Jeez, we played poorly because we had too much time off'."

Scott also spoke openly about a controversial score review that didn't award a goal to Cats star Andrew Mackie in the third term when Geelong was pressing.

"It looked like a goal. I'm happy to be proven wrong," he said. 

"I understand that the way the rules are that unless it can be categorically proven that there's a mistake … I thought the umpire had a poor view, and I thought it was a goal."

Scott reported a clean bill of health despite James Kelly (ankle) and Jared Rivers being sore.