CHRIS Scott is looking to the positives after Geelong drew with Sydney in "a poor game of football" on Friday night.

His Cats, up with a minute remaining worked hard to swing momentum back their way after Sydney had early control. Scott did conceed, however, that they allowed the Swans to dictate play for too much of the game.

SWANS V CATS Full match details and stats

"The way they want to play is quite clear and it's very effective when they get it going," Scott said post-game.

"Their ability particularly at this ground to lower their eyes going inside 50 and find that short kick makes them dangerous to play against and if you're a little bit off they can punish you and I thought we played their game a little bit too much.

"We're confident we can play better than that.

"I think if someone had have said at the start of the year that there's going to be a Grand Final replay in round 16 at the SCG and it's going to finish in a draw, you'd be desperate to get a hold of that tape. Not this one," he added with a wry smile.

Despite the result, and the spectacle, Scott was pleased with the way his side "hung in" even when things weren't going their way.

Although the coach did question the interpretation of the play on whistle, which caused his captain Patrick Dangerfield to be rushed on not one, but two set shots throughout the night.

The first, which Scott wasn't overly concerned with, saw Dangerfield called to play on for passing the allotted 30 seconds for a set shot. The second, where Dangerfield was called for moving off his line, was more of an issue for Scott.

"The one that sort of irritated me a little bit more to be honest is the one where he got called to play on for stepping 10cm off his line at the top of the 50," Scott said.

"You can come miles off your line these days and the umpire won't call you, but as soon as you sort of shape to kick and you go 10cm off your line he calls you to play on. It's just the inconsistency there, not from the umpires, I mean around the ruling and the interpretation that they're provided. It doesn't make any sense to me."

Meanwhile John Longmire has praised the effort of his young midfield despite a frustrating night on the scoreboard, where his Swans kicked just six goals from 50 forward entries.

Going up against the hardened Cats, Longmire noted that although not getting ultimate reward, things could have been worse.

"It's always a strange feeling, you sit there, you're not really sure how to feel," Longmire said of the stalemate.

"It's a bit of 'Geez that first half we played some really good footy and we just didn't hit the scoreboard'. Then we got eight points down and we fought back so it's a strange one. You don't know how to feel after games like that.

"We just need to hit the scoreboard a bit better than what we did."

What Longmire couldn't fault was effort and execution everywhere else on the field. Sydney dominated play in the first half, taking 16 marks inside 50 and shutting out the Cats' intercepting defence.

"I thought we played pretty well … in our first half, we executed exactly what we wanted to do, I thought we were very strong in all aspects of the game except the finishing," he said.

"That's an important part of the game and we didn't do it and if you look at the way the game was played in that first half, we did everything right except finish it."

It was a style of play that was led by its youth, as Braeden Campbell and Logan McDonald each kicked two goals, and Nick Blakey had 29 disposals coming off half back. 

"We had a pretty young midfield group and I think it's probably been missed a bit except for (Parker)," Longmire said.

"If you look at our average ages through our midfield, it has been, last year and this year, they're pretty young. 'BJ' (Braeden Campbell) and Errol (Gulden) and 'Gussy' (Angus Sheldrick) and even 'Rowy' (James Rowbottom), those guys aren't that old and so they're learning pretty much on the job and they're doing a good job of it."

The Swans will now look ahead to a must-win clash with Richmond on Thursday, a team whom Sydney only betters by percentage on the ladder.