GEELONG coach Chris Scott says making a call on the playing future of some of his club's greatest servants this year will be the most challenging point of his coaching career.
The Cats' experienced band of stars helped deliver a convincing 27-pont win over Greater Western Sydney at StarTrack Oval on Saturday, but Scott couldn't escape speculation over which of his veterans will still be at the club next year.
The likes of James Kelly, Corey Enright, Steve Johnson, Andrew Mackie and Jimmy Bartel are all over 30, and nearing the end of stellar careers, but are also still good enough to be part of Scott's best 22.
Click here to watch Chris Scott's full post-match press conference
Kelly had 26 touches against the Giants, and along with Bartel (25), Enright (22), Johnson (22) and Mackie (18), was invaluable contributors at important times.
The 2011 premiership coach knows some tough and emotional decisions will need to be made at the end of 2015, and although he understands the nature of the business, it's not something he is relishing.
"It's almost impossible to get it right in my experience. It's not nice," Scott said after the match.
"I heard Joel Selwood say during the week that he wants them all to play on and so do I.
"I'd still love to have Matthew Scarlett out there and Gary Ablett, but it's just not the reality.
"We love them, we all do, but we love the club just a little bit more and we have to make sure we do the right thing.
"I'm positive that we'll look back and say 'we made a mistake here and a mistake there', but it's important that our supporters understand that it's all done on the basis that we're trying to do the best thing by the club.
'Tomahawk' stands big for the Cats
Geelong's win over the Giants was vital to their finals hopes and Scott was delighted to bank four crucial points.
"I think it speaks to the evenness of the competition, on one level how difficult it is, but also how important it is to execute when you have a chance to win the game," he said.
"GWS might have been hard for us to catch if we'd dropped this one."
The Cats have steadied after losses to Melbourne and North Melbourne to win their last two games, and Scott says there is no great mystery to the form turnaround.
"We've struggled to get our best personnel together, a couple of weeks ago we had one fit emergency," he said.
"We've had 24 or 25 players on the track, which makes it hard to do the work that you would like too, and we had 40 on the track this week, so it is turning around a little bit.
"I know that it's not a great message to sell to your players that once we get back some personnel we'll be ok, but you're also kidding yourself if you think personnel doesn't play a part."
