Cats are purring under Chris Scott as AFL’s fall guys finally land on feet

After a decade of finals but no flags under coach Chris Scott, the 2022 Cats are the best placed since 2011 to win Geelong a long-awaited premiership

At the end of the 2018 season, following yet another cutthroat final that had gone belly-up in less than ten minutes, another final where the Cats had looked old, slow and ripe for a rebuild, Chris Scott addressed the players, staff, and sponsors. We're not giving up," he told them. We're not playing it safe. No rebuild. No managing expectations. No acquiescence to equalisation."

For many, it was typical Chris Scott - stubbornly trying to beat the handicapper. Every year, the Cats would lug their weight, and race on the speed. Every year, they would be mown down by some emerging lightweight. Many Geelong fans resented the coach for his prickly ways, for his game-plan, for the manner in which he'd moved on several legends of the club, for the fact that he wasn't Bomber Thompson.