‘No good reason except cash’: Scott derides AFL’s wildcard round, says Cats didn’t ‘hit our straps’ in loss to Hawks

The AFL’s controversial new wildcard round — which keeps teams that finish as low as 10th on the ladder in contention for the premiership — has been derided by Geelong coach Chris Scott as something the league just made up and a cash-grab.

A forthright Scott, a two-time premiership coach and flag winner as a Brisbane Lions player, criticised the league after Geelong’s narrow loss to Hawthorn in front of nearly 85,000 fans at the MCG on Easter Monday.

In a drastic change to the AFL season structure, teams that finish as low as 10th on the ladder will now play finals, resulting in two extra “post-season” matches. The two added games will be held over what was the pre-finals bye weekend.

The team that finishes seventh on the ladder after the home-and-away campaign will play the team that finished 10th, while the team that finished eighth will play the ninth-placed team.

Carlton will appeal the one-match striking ban handed to Will Hayward, in a bid to have the recruit available for a crunch clash with Adelaide.

Hayward was suspended for striking North Melbourne young gun George Wardlaw in the Blues’ Good Friday defeat.

The former Swan, who joined Carlton as part of the blockbuster Charlie Curnow trade, hit Wardlaw late with a swinging arm to the midriff as he kicked North into attack.

It was considered intentional conduct, medium impact and body contact, which draws a one-game ban.

Geelong coach Chris Scott has spoken candidly in a post-match interview after the Cats’ nail-biting one-point loss.

“I didn’t think we played very well,” he told Fox Footy. “Fatigue makes cowards of us all, I wouldn’t use the words cowards, my description would be... neither team would take their chances.”

“Really high pressure, great intent, great effort, great spectacle, execution, I thought it was a low standard game from our end,” he continued.

Scott said he is pragmatic about losses and said there weren’t “massive errors” but said the team would review structural things.