Debutant Kersten will get more chances, Scott says
Cats coach impressed with debut of forward Shane Kersten
GEELONG forward Shane Kersten will get plenty more opportunities to show his wares after a promising debut, Cats coach Chris Scott says.
Despite admitting his team overused the ball and failed to put Gold Coast's defence under enough pressure in the 40-point loss, Scott said he was pleased with Kersten's three-goal debut.
Along with the 21-year-old's trio, Tom Hawkins kicked three, as did Steven Motlop.
"It was a really positive debut for him," Scott said.
"We never went into this game thinking he had to prove himself in this game.
"He's going to get a good run at it I would have thought if he keeps applying himself the way he has."
The Cats had just 43 inside 50s to Gold Coast's 60 despite having just three fewer disposals (358-355).
Scott said Geelong was beaten around the ball, but they overused it, and combined with poor skill execution, it was a recipe for disaster.
However he was not concerned by a pattern of letting teams get big runs of goals, and said Geelong had not run out of legs.
Gold Coast kicked eight successive goals either side of three-quarter time, but Scott said it was more a product of Geelong trying to chase victory than any fatigue.
"I thought it was more a matter of us trying to win it," he said.
"You've got options, you can try to close it down a bit and mitigate the damage or you can take it on and risk losing by more and give yourself a chance of winning.
"We could stick to plan A and have not much change and bridge the gap a little bit, or we can take it on and try to win."
Scott said he was not sure of the extent of Matthew Stokes' ankle injury, but his half-time substitution hurt the Cats.
"It was bad enough he couldn't play on. That's generally not a good sign," he said.