“Outrageous success”: Scott's opinion on Smith issues

Geelong coach Chris Scott has broken his silence on Bailey Smith’s social media activity and the disruption it causes, days after it was revealed the AFL had written to the club to put the superstar on notice.

Smith will receive sanctions from the AFL if his negative social media activity continues to cause the issues it has in recent weeks.

The 24-year-old has been at the centre of numerous social media scandals, most recently sharing an Instagram story displaying a photo of an episode of The Footy Show, within which former AFL personality Sam Newman berated journalist Caroline Wilson.

This came just days after Geelong’s Mad Monday antics, where Max Holmes’ decision to dress up as Wilson and Smith’s ongoing Instagram use during the Cats’ celebrations caused major criticism and the ultimate cancellation of future Mad Mondays.

Despite the headlines and criticism, Scott insists the club does not have a problem when it comes to managing Smith who he says he been an “outrageous success” for the club.

“If you separate out the off-field issues – that’s sort of the best way to describe it – and we think through how the last 12 months have gone with Bailey, it’s been an outrageous success. Outrageous, not perfect,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

“But if you are privy to some of the information with a whole range of our players, I think it’s likely that that’s going to be a similar sort of description, that some bits have gone really, really well, and there are other bits that we’ve sort of got to nudge and manage.

“In my opinion, it shouldn’t be a matter of: 'there’s the head office that’s in charge of enforcement, and there are the clubs that are involved in dealing with the issues' - we should be working collaboratively together, and that’s actually been my experience behind the scenes.”

Scott said he had spoken with Smith in recent weeks since the club lose the Grand Final to the Lions but wanted to protect his privacy during a period of annual leave.

Unwilling to divulge the content of his conversations with his superstar player, Scott did say he welcomed the AFL’s involvement in player “issues”.

“If he (Steve Hocking) was referring to the fact we communicate with our players regularly, we wear it as a badge of honour that we don’t consider our role as having ownership of our players but there is an expectation that we work together as peers to get better.

“We’re really confident that it’s in a good spot.

“I refuse to buy into the idea that there is some serious or major work to be done.

“I’ll double down; we welcome more communications from the AFL. Our role as a collective as clubs and AFL should be to work together to get the best outcome for everyone.

“Far from being concerned that they have reached out, I think it’s a positive thing. They’re not sitting back and not helping us, I think there’s good collaboration."

Asked if he felt that Smith's behaviour created more work, Scott denied the notion.

"I think you (the media) think this creates work for everyone but it's not the way we see it. it's not more work it's been an outrageous success.

"That's not to say it's perfect, but to build this up to be something it's not is not something I will buy into.

"I don't live in that social media world."