AS THE most penalised team in the AFL this year, the onus is on Geelong to avoid giving away so many unnecessary free kicks, says coach Chris Scott.
The Cats have conceded 223 free kicks in nine matches in 2016, nearly twice as many as the Western Bulldogs, who also boast a league-best differential of 77.
Geelong has a league-worst differential of minus 37, although Collingwood only shaded the count 26-23 in last weekend's shock victory over the Cats.
"We're still bad, still clearly 18th in the competition, a long, long, long way behind the best in the comp so it's a work in progress," Scott said on Friday.
"We don't want to make a bigger deal of it than it is.
"We're really clear that it's a Geelong problem - it's not an umpiring problem.
"We've got it within our control to fix it and we think we're taking some steps but clearly based on the numbers we're not quite there yet."
Scott insisted it wasn't simply a matter of the Cats being unlucky and getting penalised for a really aggressive attack on the ball.
"The ones we're concerned about are the lazy ones and importantly the ones that give up goals," said.
"Our key forwards aren't getting many free kicks themselves so they can improve their positioning and we're (conceding) a few too many lazy ones around the middle."
Scott refused to read too much into Geelong's staggering record against Carlton at Etihad Stadium, which now stands at 14 straight victories heading into Sunday afternoon's clash at the indoor venue.
"I'm not a big believer in going back 10 years and believing it has an impact on the weekend's games," said.
"But I guess it's better to be on that side of the ledger than the other."
The Cats have decided to err on the side of caution with forward Dan Menzel, who will be rested this weekend.
"We've been really clear right through Dan's recovery from four knee reconstructions that we would need to manage him carefully," said Scott.
"It's in part long-term planning an in part how he's feeling this particular week.
"We just thought he wasn't quite good enough and if we didn't do it now we'd need to do it at some stage."
FREE KICKS IN 2016 BY THE NUMBERS
Most free kicks earned: West Coast (207)
Most free kicks conceded: Geelong (223)
Least free kicks earned: St Kilda (149)
Least free kicks conceded: Western Bulldogs: 127
Best free-kick differential: Western Bulldogs (+77)
Worst free kick-differential: Geelong (-36)
