The Kangaroos always knew they'd be without Hamish McIntosh (Achilles) and Drew Petrie (suspended), but when 201cm ruckman Todd Goldstein fell ill on Saturday night, trying to contain the influence of All Australian Eagles big man Dean Cox was always going to be tough.
With the Roos' tallest, Lachlan Hansen, needed up forward, the job fell to debutant, 193cm Cameron Pedersen.
He toiled away well to have 20 possessions, five marks and 14 hit-outs despite Cox putting in a best-afield performance. Scott was happy with Pedersen's effort, but acknowledges the role Cox played for West Coast.
"I thought he competed really well for us, but Cox is a class act and on the back of a really good preparation he played well, as he probably should have against the non-ruckman he was playing on," Scott said.
"I thought our midfield held their own in there, but in the end they overpowered us.
"When you've got a player of Cox's ability down the line it's very difficult to kick it long to a contest when you know where he is. Trying to bypass him is difficult and the way game is played now, when you haven’t got those key forwards and ruckmen that you can kick to, that get out option is gone."
While West Coast had to use its sub early when Chris Masten went down injured, Scott held off bringing on Ben Warren until towards the end of the third quarter.
"If we had waited a minute longer we would have subbed [Jack] Ziebell instead of [Ben] McKinley off because Ziebell went down with bad cramp and really couldn’t come back on," he said.
"We had chosen to sub McKinley, though, and then Ziebell went down. Our thinking was to hold it back as long as we could and try to decide who to sub off. In hindsight we got it wrong, but it's a very difficult decision to make."
Scott expects Goldstein and Petrie to play Collingwood on Saturday, and Nathan Grima to also further strengthen their defence.
"We get Goldstein back unless it turns into an eight-day virus and not a 24-hour one," Scott said.
"Goldstein, Grima and Petrie should all be available, and we should have a few others who played well in the VFL. Goldstein, Grima and Petrie are pretty handy key position players and we were a couple short this week."
