“I think that at the start of the game, we’re all sort of wondering, ‘how’s this going to play out’?

“But after a few calls were made, we sort of realised that, ‘gee, they’re going to be hot on it’.”

The Tigers had a firmer grasp of what was expected, dominating Geelong during the first half, leading clearances 23 to 18, stoppage clearances 18 to 13 and tackles 39 to 29.

The parochial Geelong crowd was livid across the first two terms when at least two holding the ball decision were not paid against Richmond players who appeared to let go of the ball during tackles.

“I think most people would expect that there’s going to be an overreaction from the umpires, because it’s really hard to make an adjustment and get it exactly right,” Scott said.

“I haven’t got a really strong opinion on it just yet, But the one thing I’m happy to say is we will need to adjust the way we play off the back of it. And that’s not ideal in round 11 or 12, or whatever it is.

“We need to think it through a little bit. Normally, you’re sort of working through these things over a four-month pre-season.

“All we’ve ever asked for is that we have all the information we can so we understand the rules exactly as they are going to be interpreted. And then we can coach the players accordingly.

“So there’ll be lots and lots of examples that we can look at, over this round and the next round that we can get clarification on.”

Geelong trailed by 29 points during the first half and went in at the long break 16 points in arrears, struggling to contain the dominance of Liam Baker and ruckman Toby Nankervis.

It must have been a hard watch for Patrick Dangerfield, who has been stuck in the coaches’ box for the past five rounds, waiting for his hamstring to be given the all clear (lock it in next week).

But “Danger” would have been proud of the Cats midfield quartet of Jack Bowes, Tanner Bruhn, Max Holmes and Tom Atkins who swung the game back in Geelong’s favour during the third term.

They did so by winning the clearances 12-5, the centre clearances 6-1, the stoppage clearances 6-4 and the Cats led the third-quarter tackles 17 to 11.

While young forward Ollie Dempsey kept his side in the game with two late goals in the second quarter and one in the third, a previously quiet Jeremy Cameron was moved to a wing to assert considerable influence and Shannon Neale put the Cats in front for the first time all game at the 20-minute mark of the third term.

Their effort has catapulted Geelong back onto the winners’ list and suddenly their 8-4 return for the season looks healthy.

“There’s no room to slack off a bit in this comp,” Bruhn said.

“We knew that Richmond, obviously they have a few out, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to bring the heat and they are not going to bring the pressure, so we were probably just a little bit off in that first half.

“But we managed to pull it back and finish off the game well.”

Scott said Geelong would look at bringing back their skipper for next Sunday’s clash with top-of-the-table Sydney at the SCG after “he’s had a few really good weeks on the track”.

“He’s tracking really well, Pat, and he’s going to be a great addition to have,” Bruhn said.

“We’ve sort of got that next-man-up mentality, but when you’ve got Patty Danger coming back that’s a nice one to have.”

One negative for Geelong was losing Ollie Henry to hamstring awareness in the second quarter, but Scott said the decision to remove him from the game was precautionary.

Tigers weigh up Dusty decision ahead of Crows clash

Injury-plagued and undermanned Richmond face the dilemma of whether to take club champion Dustin Martin to Adelaide on Thursday night to play his 300th game off a five-day break.

If the Tigers rest their three-time premiership star, he would be able to celebrate the milestone the following week in front of the Richmond faithful at the MCG against Hawthorn.

Richmond coach Yze said the decision to play Martin would not be made on saving the 300th game for the MCG - a stage on which he has won a record three Norm Smith Medals.

“Oh, no it won’t be around that it will be because we’ve got a five-day break,” Yze said.

“So we will probably have three or four players in that category based on their age and workload that might be high risk to play against Adelaide no matter what.

“So we’ll go through that and see who pulls up well, and things like that, and he will obviously be one of those players. So we’ll let you know as soon as we can.

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“We’re about performance and things we want, and he’ll want to play, but like I said if it’s too high-risk based on a five-day break ... we’ll make that decision later in the week.”

The Tigers injury curse continued on Saturday night with impressive forward Mykelti Lefau taken from the ground with a knee injury, and Marlion Pickett being subbed out of the game with a calf complaint.

“It does look like he might have hurt his knee,” Yze said of Lefau. “He’ll obviously go to get scans on Monday. It will be shattering if it is, because he’s in good form and he’s a real talent.

“So if it is, we’ll wrap our arms around him like we have with the other boys that have injured themselves, but we are hoping that it might not be the case.”

As well as some time out with a calf injury, Pickett might be looking at a fine for appearing to give the Geelong crowd the bird as he walked from the ground.

“I haven’t seen it,” Yze said. “But if he has, yeah, that’d be disappointing. I’d have a chat to him for sure.”

In a lighter moment, Yze said that key defender Noah Balta was referring to a notebook at the interchange bench during the second term because he was trying to explain Geelong’s stoppage structure and what they were doing in their forward 50.

“He called me over and I couldn’t read his writing, but it was smart,” Yze said.

“Look, it was just a different way of explaining what he was trying to get across to us. So it made sense in the end and he had a really good game.”

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