GEELONG missed a golden chance to boost its percentage in Saturday's 66-point win over Melbourne at the MCG, coach Chris Scott says.
The Cats threatened to claw back some significant ground lost – particularly in a 110-point belting from the Sydney Swans in round 11 – when they led the Demons by 59 points at half-time.
But they lost the third quarter by four points and only booted two goals to one in the final term.
It continued a concerning trend for the Cats – who have been beaten in 16 of their past 22 quarters after half-time.
"Very good in the first half and no better than average in the second half," was how Scott assessed the performance.
"We had plenty of chances (after half-time).
"We missed in front of goal, we had some really nice opportunities to score that we blew and they found it really hard to score but for some free kicks and a few bits of lazy play they wouldn't have scored much at all.
"We should have been better."
The Cats' percentage only lifted by 4.9 to 112.4 and - despite currently sitting third on the ladder - they are likely to slip back to fifth on percentage after round 17 is complete.
Although Geelong has won five of its past six – all against teams outside the eight – Scott said it was tough to judge where the Cats sit compared to the competition's elite teams.
"Not sure. Wait until we play them - that will be the test," he said.
"The honest answer is I don't know, but we're pretty positive. There's a sense of uncertainty around what we're going to do.
"If we play like we did in the first half, I think we're pretty hard to beat.
"If we roll out what we rolled out in the second half I think we're probably a bit behind those top teams."
Cameron Guthrie was substituted out of the match in the third quarter on Saturday, with Scott revealing he took the chance to rest the midfielder.
