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AFL

AFL grand final

Opinion

Caroline Wilson Football columnist for The Age September 26, 2025 — 7.15pm

Chris Scott clearly chose long ago to shield his players from the torturous toll that AFL coaching has regularly taken upon him.

This time last year he was existing off-grid emotionally, having descended into a black hole of despair after the preliminary final loss to Brisbane. Scott had taken the Cats from 12th in 2023 to their ninth top-four finish under him but, as he said later, the disappointment only gets worse with every season.

He grieved for weeks, far longer than the majority of his players with whom he has famously never lost it in the traditional sense of ranting or shouting, but then picked himself up and began plotting with some notable new faces for this

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