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Scott breaks silence on blow-up with AFL staffer
SEN • September 18th, 2025 4:29 pm
Chris Scott has revealed a culmination of issues with the AFL led to his blow-up with a young staffer last week with the Geelong coach admitting he should not have let his frustrations get the better of him as he discussed the matter for the first time.
Last week, Scott was forced to apologise for reducing a young AFL official to tears in the aftermath of his side’s Qualifying Final win over Brisbane.
It was a second incident to thrust the club into the spotlight last week after Bailey Smith swore and flipped the bird at a female photographer during an open training session, for which he later apologised via text message.
“It was not one thing in particular, and it certainly had nothing to do with Matt,” Scott said of his outburst while denying it had anything to do with the presence of journalist Matt Lee.
“Probably over a period there’s 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 how we’re feeling about certain issues.
“These are private conversations, and I don’t think I should be explaining it in great detail without the AFL being there to put their side of the story forward. But even that amplifies it even more than it needs to be.
“If you looked at any one issue, you’d think, well that’s not a big deal … but for me it was a culmination of issues that we felt we hadn’t done a good enough job of explaining our position to them, which therefore meant they didn’t really say anything at all to us.
“I didn’t handle a certain situation as well as I would have liked to, and let my frustrations get the better of me, and for that I spoke to the person involved, and even from their side they acknowledged there were some frustrations that built up.
“I should have handled that situation better, but I acknowledge that it was a private conversation.
“It would be a lot easier if you did litigate those issues in an attempt to help people understand why those frustrations are so acute, but I get that’s not fair on them.”
Asked for his take on the Smith incident, Scott said he is not surprised with the public frustrations with his star player.
“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.
“I’m pretty comfortable that while we acknowledge we’re not perfect, that we’ve got a pretty good track record.”
Geelong take on Hawthorn tomorrow night at the MCG with a spot in the Grand Final on the line.
