GEELONG coach Chris Scott concedes he let his frustrations get the better of him in an exchange with an AFL staffer two weeks ago, saying a build-up of frustration at the League contributed to the incident.
The Cats coach added he would have preferred Bailey Smith had called instead of texted a photographer he swore at during a training session last week, but acknowledged the star midfielder’s intent to apologise for the incident.
Scott called to apologise to an AFL staffer last week after she was reduced to tears following an exchange with the Cats coach after their qualifying final win over Brisbane.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the incident came to light, Scott said he ‘didn’t handle a certain situation as well as I would have liked to’.
But he said frustrations with the AFL over a range of issues, including an incident this year when a conversation between he and Smith at training was broadcast, had built up.
“Probably over a period … there’s been a few little issues that have popped up where we thought that maybe we could have communicated with the AFL a little bit better to help them understand how we’re feeling about certain issues,” he said.
“These are private conversations, and I don’t think I should be explaining it in great detail without the AFL being there to put their side of the story forward. But even that amplifies it even more than it needs to be.
“If you looked at any one issue, you’d think, well that’s not a big deal … but for me it was a culmination of issues that we felt we hadn’t done a good enough job of explaining our position to them, which therefore meant they didn’t really say anything at all to us.
“I didn’t handle a certain situation as well as I would have liked to, and let my frustrations get the better of me, and for that I spoke to the person involved, and even from their side they acknowledged there were some frustrations that built up. I should have handled that situation better, but I acknowledge that it was a private conversation.”
Last week, Smith swore at and flipped the bird to a photographer who had been invited into Cats training. Cats CEO Steve Hocking later called the photographer to apologise, while Smith texted his apology.
“Being a middle-aged man … I’m probably a phone call guy,” Scott said. “That would be my preference
“I think the intention is the most important thing.
“The way Bailey responded in that moment, it’s been a build-up of things that have led Bailey to believe that he should be less trusting than I think he should be. We’ll work through these things, and you’ll see his side of the story a little bit. I don’t think there’s any sympathy in this room in particular, and I respect it to be honest.
“I’m pretty comfortable that while we acknowledge we’re not perfect, that we’ve got a pretty good track record.”
Scott dismissed the suggestion that his club had a cultural issue, saying he and his players were humans who would make mistakes.
“We’ve worked really hard for a long period of time to get ourselves to the situation where we’re really proud of the way we go about our business,” he said.
“But within that, there’s always been this acknowledgement that we’re all human. That’s part of developing a good environment. While not accepting of behaviour that you don’t approve of, you do acknowledge that there’ll be hiccups along the way.
“We have a responsibility to our people to look after them as best as possible, and to help them develop and evolve along the way.”
