Geelong Cats coach Chris Scott regrets run-in with female AFL staffer but claims someone out to get him

Geelong coach Chris Scott says long-held frustration with the AFL was behind his regrettable post-qualifying final win outburst at a junior female league employee.

Addressing recent off-field issues at Geelong, including one involving enigmatic star Bailey Smith, for more than 20 minutes on Thursday, Scott acknowledged he had let himself down.

But the dual premiership coach denied reports he had been aggrieved about the presence of an accredited reporter, who is blind and works for Vision Australia Radio, at his post-game press conference on September 5.

An AFL staffer was left in tears after Scott spoke with her following the Cats’ victory over the Brisbane Lions.

That report emerged after photographer Alison Wynd was left “rattled” after Smith aggressively singled her out for taking snaps of him last week at a training session open to the media.

Scott and Smith were both not sanctioned by the AFL.

“There’s just 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 the way we were feeling about certain issues,” Scott said during a marathon 36-minute press conference on Thursday.

“I didn’t handle a certain situation as well as I would have liked to, and let my frustrations get the better of me.”

Scott implied the incident had been leaked by someone to “get one up”.

“I also acknowledge that it was a private conversation, and sometimes private conversations become public, and it would become a lot easier if you actually did litigate all those issues in an attempt to help people understand why those frustrations were so acute,” he said.

“But I don’t think that’s fair.

“There’s probably been frustrations with the AFL over a period, probably back to March 2020 (the start of the COVID-19 pandemic), but that’s across the whole industry.

“I can’t think of a situation where I’ve portrayed what I thought were private conversations just to get one up on our side of the debate.

“Do you then just let the floodgates open and release all the contents of those private conversations?

“Or do you say no, even if we’re going to be the victim of some extrapolation or some innuendo, then that’s what I’m prepared to bear.”

When speaking about Smith, who is second favourite to win the Brownlow Medal on Monday night, Scott said the magnetic midfielder was “less trusting of the media than I think he should be”.

Scott and Smith were left fuming when what they thought was a private conversation at training was broadcast on the AFL’s website in July.

“I’m pretty comfortable that while we acknowledge we’re not perfect, that we’ve got a pretty good track record,” said Scott.

“It’s a contradiction almost: a highly marketable public person (Smith) who puts a lot of it out there, but then intensely personal about some issues.

“Not only did (AFL Media) they choose to use it, they put subtitles underneath it, and actually extrapolated some of the things that were said and got it wrong.

“ ... It’s not intended to be a defence.”

Smith took part in Geelong’s captain’s run at GMHBA Stadium on Thursday, but left after about five minutes when media were allowed into the ground to watch.

Scott is confident the former Western Bulldog is in a good headspace to help the Cats try to win through to a grand final by beating Hawthorn in Friday night’s preliminary final at the MCG.