ALTHOUGH disappointed this his team was unable to advance straight to a preliminary final, Geelong coach Chris Scott was far from downcast after his team's upset 15-point loss to Fremantle on Saturday.
Scott was adamant that the result simply came down to which team took its chances, and the Cats didn't take theirs.
Geelong’s field-kicking was poor and they were wayward in front of goal, finishing with 9.18, a total that included no goals and five behinds in the frenetic final quarter.
"The game can be very different if you take your chances," Scott said. "We thought we were on top (in the first quarter), and the game was being played the way we wanted it to.
"As the game wore on, they got control around the middle. Their big ruckmen, in particular, were able to get first hands on the ball.
"The difference in the game was that they got some easy goals, some soft goals, and they didn't give us any."
Geelong was blitzed around the stoppages, with the final clearance count finishing 43-22 in Fremantle's favour.
"They're elite stoppage players, and when you combine that with a 211cm ruckman (Aaron Sandilands), it makes it difficult," Scott said.
"It was a big factor in the game, and we're disappointed we couldn't do more to halve some of those contests.
"But when the ball's going their way, they're a hard side to rebound against.
"Even then, I didn't think it was our lack of scoring that was the issue. We certainly had enough chances. We kicked a lot of points.
"It was the fact that the other way they were able to get some really easy goals, and in a low-scoring arm-wrestle that's very costly."
Jimmy Bartel admitted he and his teammates struggled to handle the immense pressure that Fremantle applied to whoever had the ball.
"We certainly didn't use the ball as well as we should have going forward and we probably didn't keep it in there as well as we should have," Bartel said.
"Sometimes you can only do what the opposition allows you to do. Freo are very good at getting numbers back and they did that well."
Geelong's premiership odds have blown out after the loss to the Dockers, but Scott remains adamant his team can still win the flag.
"I think we're a pretty positive club," he said. "We're two games out of a Grand Final.
"Now we'll shorten our focus very much into this week and playing Collingwood or Port this Friday night. But we're in a fantastic position.
"We could be in a slightly better position, but there's nothing we can do about it now.
"We didn’t play well enough today and the opposition were good. But we'll bounce back really quickly.
"We've got some fantastic players available to pick from and we're confident we'll put on a very good show on Friday night."
Adding intrigue to the situation is that if Geelong wins next week it will meet the Hawks in a preliminary final.
"Hawthorn or Freo in a prelim, I'm not sure which I'd rather play to be honest," Scott said.
The stats certainly point to the Cats being happy with a clash against Hawthorn. Geelong has beaten the Hawks 11 times in a row since the 2008 Grand Final.
