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.
