Cats coach Chris Scott spoke to the media post game.

Obviously, a great start. But with Tom Stewart missing, it was perhaps the composure one of the most pleasing aspects from your standpoint?

It was a really good win against a very good opposition who outplayed us for big parts of the night. Obviously, getting off a good start and getting a buffer there was very helpful. But on our side, the last four to six weeks, we’ve been pretty undermanned, and we’ve been really impressed as a coaching group and a club with the resilience of the guys that have been out there. Specifically, we were really going into this game with one key defender, with Jake Kolodjashnij going out, due to the health and safety protocols. So it was going to be a great battle no matter what against [Aaron] Naughton and [Sam] De Koning, we were always going to go that way.

When we lost our best player [Tom Stewart] at quarter time, it looked like being a real challenge for that back half. We knew throughout the course of the game with the quality the Bulldogs had around the ball that they were going to have their moments and the ball was going to go forward with some precision at times and it was going to put our defenders under pressure. So, not just the defenders, I thought we were outplayed but we were able to maintain our composure and hang in there enough to, I shouldn’t say give ourselves a chance, because I think we were in front the whole night but I think for big parts of the game it felt to us in the coaches’ box as if we’d lost control. So it was a stressful night.

36 per cent scoring rate when they enter their forward 50 and after, obviously, Tom going down so early, is that one of the more pleasing aspects of the game?

Yeah, I think it speaks to the quality of our defenders down there, especially De Koning. He’s in the conversation for the best key forwards in the comp in Naughton. Yeah, without Stewart. And I think they are quite precise with the way they use the ball, going inside 50. Sometimes what that can lead to, it looks really good or it doesn’t work at all is the point I’m trying to make so that maybe is the reason that number is what it is.

Did you see this break-out coming from De Koning, coming off probably the best game of his career last week, one of the best forwards in the comp this week. Where has this sort of form come from?

I feel like I’ve been speaking about it a bit recently, which is good, because he had a really good pre-season and trained exclusively as a key back, which wasn’t the case the 12 months before that. It’s been a really difficult time for any AFL player who hasn’t been in the senior team every week because the lower levels have been decimated and it’s been hard to get some continuity. I think there is an argument that he’s playing the way he is because he got some experience as a key forward, as a ruckman, but over the last whatever it is, six months, I think the specificity in what he’s been doing has really helped. But I didn’t expect it. We were going to play him Round 1. We thought he showed really nice composure there and didn’t look out of his depth but he’s really accelerated from there, to the point where a young key defender, young players in particular - they come into the AFL, most of them haven’t played against men before so it’s a big step up. There was a little bit of a learning curve for him, but I think our development coach, James Kelly, is doing a lot of work with him back there, Matty Egan, Harry Taylor, but most of the credit should go to Sam, there’s no doubt about that.

Is it just a concussion? Are there any jaw concerns with Tom Stewart?

He told me he had passed the [concussion] test which is probably a sign that he is not quite right. [Scott laughs] Apparently the vision was the bit that was the nail in his coffin but as far as he was concerned and aside from how the vision looked, he is pretty much symptom-free.

Scott also said he expected the Cats could get “half a dozen” players back after the bye.