Geelong coach Chris Scott has alluded to issues his 'battered' Cats team were going through during the latter stages of the season after their 83-point belting against Melbourne in Friday night's preliminary final.
The Cats never got going on neutral territory at Optus Stadium, as the Demons extended their lead at every break to hand Geelong their biggest finals defeat in 52 years.
Scott revealed Geelong was going through significant problems in the back end of the campaign, but wouldn't speak specifically about what hindered his team.
"We were pretty battered towards the end of the season. Not just the last couple of weeks but probably the six weeks leading into the finals series," Scott said in his post-match press conference.
"There's a few things I won't speak about tonight that will become clearer over the next few weeks.
"The last five or six weeks it feels like we've been plugging gaps a little bit. When you get to this stage of the year, you really need to be hot and have everything up and going.
"We just weren't good enough to get ourselves in a position where we could play our best footy and we came up against a team who was the opposite."
Scott has led Geelong to 10 finals campaigns during his 11 seasons in charge and since winning the premiership in 2011, the Cats have lost five of their past six preliminary finals.
Despite the Cats having one of the oldest lists in the competition - with 11 players over the age of 30 playing against the Demons - Scott believes the team's premiership window is not yet shut, unless their mindset allows it.
"We've fallen short, and it's a bitter pill to swallow, but our club has over a long time found a way to recover from difficult situations," Scott said.
"I think we're in that situation again where we've got a choice to make. We can roll over or we can take the time we need to regroup.
"That is one thing I'm really proud of at the Geelong footy club, and it's been going on since before I got here, and that is we do everything we can to look our players in the eye at the start of every year and say we're going to give you the best chance."
