A good season with a disappointing finish - that is how Geelong coach Chris Scott summed up 2016 for his club.
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The Swans beat the Cats by 37 points at the MCG on Friday night, a result which is again likely to draw into question the AFL's controversial end of home-and-away season competition-wide bye.
It meant that Geelong played just one game, their two-point win over Hawthorn, in nearly four weeks, but Scott refused to blame the fixture for his team's performance.
"I would rather have been us [not Sydney], I still maintain that position," Scott said.
Scott said coaching staff would need to analyse how the Cats used the time off, but said they had been confident before the start of the match.
"We thought we gave ourselves every chance and didn't execute on the night, sometimes that's just what it is," he said.
"It was completely in our control, we just didn't deliver."
Veteran Corey Enright looked particularly upset after the match, prompting speculation it was the 35-year-old's last AFL game, but Scott said he would not speak about the matter on Friday.
Scott said the Swan's clean ball use was key to their winning performance.
Sydney players also tackled well, he said.
"They jumped us, almost no matter what we tried early we couldn't stop that," he said.
"They were just extraordinarily efficient, relative to us."
"Their work around the contest was first rate, we didn't play well but they forced us to play poorly around the contest."
Scott said Geelong had missed Daniel Menzel in attack.
The forward was excluded from the team suffering groin soreness.
"I'm not a coach who says we don't rely on personnel, clearly we do, everyone does," he said.