Geelong coach Chris Scott has revealed his disappointment with Bailey Smith while saying his long-held frustration with the AFL was behind his outburst that left a junior female league employee in tears earlier this month.
Addressing recent off-field issues at Geelong, including one involving enigmatic star Smith, Scott acknowledged he had let himself down.
But the dual premiership coach denied reports he had been aggrieved about the presence of accredited reporter Matt Lee, who is legally blind, at his post-game press conference on September 5 at the MCG.
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’ when Smith aggressively singled her out for taking snaps of him last week at a training session that was open to the media.
Smith eventually sent a text to Wynd after flipping the bird at her at training and launching an expletive-laden rant demanding she delete photos of him and slamming her ability.
Geelong coach Chris Scott has confirmed he spoke to Bailey Smith following the midfielder’s recent outburst directed at photographer Alison Wynd during a Cats training session open to the media
But the dual premiership coach denied reports he had been aggrieved about the presence of an accredited reporter Matt Lee, who is legally blind, at his post-game press conference at the MCG on September 5
Scott said he had ‘of course’ addressed the behaviour with Smith and while he was ‘optimistic’ it would not happen again, he could not make any guarantees.
‘Yeah, that would be my preference (that he’d rung Wynd),’ Scott said.
‘But again, the way I try to think about these things is especially the intention is the most important thing.
‘Even 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.’
Both Scott and Smith were 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.’
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
Smith demanded Wynd delete photos of him receiving treatment during a training session – when she refused, he launched into a tirade
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, Scott said the magnetic midfielder was ‘less trusting of the media than I think he should be’.
Chris Scott and the Cats will now turn their attention to beating Hawthorn in Friday night’s preliminary final at the MCG
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,’ the coach said.
‘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 they (AFL Media) choose to use it, they put subtitles underneath it, and actually extrapolated some of the things that were said and got it wrong.’
Smith took part in Geelong’s captain’s run at GMHBA Stadium on Thursday, but left after about five minutes when media were permitted into the ground.
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.
