Scott says players adapting well to new rules, slams ‘dinosaurs’

GEELONG coach Chris Scott believes players are adjusting quickly to the AFL’s crackdown on umpire dissent and will try to tone down his own reactions to decisions from the coaches’ box.

This week, AFL football operations boss Brad Scott, brother of the Cats coach, warned that umpires would continue to penalise animated protests from players.

Chris Scott, whose reactions to various moments in games have frequently been caught on camera, vowed to try to limit them to when his players did something good.

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“Most of the time when I’m really over the top in the box, it’s in reaction to something positive,” he said.

“I do accept that it’s an emotional game and I’ll need to relieve that pressure somehow and I choose to relieve it in ways that don’t revolve around criticising our own players.

“I’m saying to you that I’m going to do my very best as well to ensure it doesn’t revolve around getting frustrated with umpires. It will have to be off the back of good things that our good players do. Bring ’em on.

“I’m fallible even as a coach. I am more than happy to say that if we are all-in on this, then let’s be all-in. I’ll probably muck it up.”

Tom Mitchell talks to umpire Hayden Gavine during the Hawks-Cats clash on Monday April 18, 2022. Picture: AFL Photos

Scott said players had adjusted to the crackdown on dissent “really quickly”, given they’d had to break longstanding habits.

“Maybe the current players are bearing the brunt of something that should have been shifted a long, long time ago,” he said.

“But I don’t even blame the players of yesteryear, myself included to be honest, because you played to the rules of the day.

“And that’s all they’re asking now. These are the rules of the day, forget about what you were allowed to do last year or 10 years or 20 years ago – which is where ex-players do sound like dinosaurs.

“When they start talking about the ‘good old days’ I tend to tune out and I suggest everyone else should as well, because we’ve got to move forward.”