Geelong senior coach Chris Scott has revealed his thoughts on the controversial pair of free kicks handed to Brisbane forward Cameron Rayner at the precipice of half time during Friday night's enthralling qualifying final.
It all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye, with Geelong dominating Brisbane from centre clearance over a five-minute patch, piling on four goals in that span to jump out to a 27-point lead. The blue and white had a prime opportunity to make the margin a game-high 33 points through Tyson Stengle moments later after winning another centre clearance - a potentially insurmountable advantage.
But then, the game flipped. A down-field free kick 150 metres away in Brisbane's goal square was called on utility Mark O'Connor for a push on Rayner, gifting Brisbane a much-needed spark in a match where they were losing control.
Rayner let O'Connor know about his mistake and a scuffle ensued, which saw Brisbane handed another free kick in the goal square after a bump from Cats defender Zach Guthrie sent Rayner sprawling on the turf.
It could have been a moment that cost Geelong dearly, with emotions heightened and a potential six-goal lead cut back to just 15 points in seconds.
However, the Cats' composure and premiership pedigree came to light in the moments following, as the group regathered at half-time and went on to continue their scoreboard domination of the Lions in the second half, ultimately securing a home preliminary final with a 38-point victory.
Many media pundits and fans believed Rayner was rewarded for going down too easily, with Scott open to the debate of whether the punishment of the innocuous pushes from O'Connor and Guthrie were too harsh.
"I think it would be a good discussion to have... it's worthy of discussion. The first one and then the second one too," Scott said.
"I guess some people might debate whether it's too big of a penalty to be a free kick on the goal line as opposed to one on the centre bounce.
"The next step would be you want to be really sure that it's right. But that goes for other decisions in the game as well. We shouldn't kid ourselves that a free kick 10 metres out from goal is the same as a free kick at the other end."
Scott made his stance on the free kicks clear without directly stating his opinion, but admitted he only saw vision of the initial free kick on Mark O'Connor following the Cats resounding win.
"I'm not going to comment on [whether Rayner went down too easily] because I think it's pretty obvious," Scott said.
"Fortunately, one of my colleagues in the box said, 'you don't want to see it on the broadcast vision', so I didn't see it until post-game."
Scott praised his side's ability to remain composed and not buy into the Lions' antics from there on out, however, highlighting how the group collectively remained unbothered by the lapse as Geelong surged to a second half walkover.
"Interestingly, we didn't think it got out of control," Scott told media post-game.
"We thought that in the box there was not much you can do about it. The emphasis for us was making sure the players didn't get too frustrated by it. For the most part, that was handled pretty well, on our part.
"I was pleased on a couple of fronts; the composure of our guys, and I've been at the Cats for a while, but I don't think I've heard our crowd as engaged as they were.
"Maybe that was something that sparked them even more. They were almost getting taunted there at one stage. Even at the box, which is pretty well insulated, we could tell the crowd was up and about. You wouldn't want to design it that way, but it did add a little bit of extra spice, I thought."
Geelong will now wait to play the winner of next weekend's semi-final between Adelaide and either GWS or Hawthorn as they look to launch into a third Grand Final this decade.
