“He’s in the top three or four coaches across the competition. If you have a look at, tactically, what he does game day, it’s exceptional.

“Now, what do we need to do to make sure that he’s got refreshment around him? We’re currently working through that.”

He said there was too much focus on Scott externally and everyone needed to step up including him as CEO, Lloyd as football manager and Stephen Wells in recruiting to ensure the load was shared.

Hocking, who officially began in the role three weeks ago, also identified the absence of the team’s best players at key parts of the season as an issue that needed to be addressed after the Cats were thrashed in the preliminary final.

Tom Stewart, Patrick Dangerfield, Jeremy Cameron and Mitch Duncan all missed key blocks of the season while Brandan Parfitt and Mark O’Connor were injured in the finals. Other key players battled injury concerns through the finals.

“We had so many players throughout the year, that were our top eight to ten players, who were unavailable at different stages. We’ve got work to do on that front,” Hocking said.

“That’s an improvement area of for us across fitness and medical and how that feeds into coaching and that’s part of what we’re currently working through. That is critical. You have to have all those parts working. You can’t just have the best coaching model.”

Hocking said the club would still contend in 2022, but he felt there had perhaps been too much emphasis on the now rather than the having one foot planted in the current season and another foot looking towards the future.

He said Wells had responsibility for getting their picks 22, 30, 32, 34 and 50 right to ensure the Cats laid a foundation for the future with a beefed-up emphasis on development an indication of where they were heading under Scott.