The Blueshave also approached Scott’s twin brother,Brad,the former North Melbourne coach,as they search forDavid Teague’s replacement. But Brad Scott has yet to confirm whether he will officially join the Blues’ search.

Port Adelaide senior assistant Michael Voss,Richmond’s Adam Kingsley and West Coast’s Jaymie Graham are also set to be sounded out,with the Blues indicating interviews will begin as early as this week.

An emotional Chris Scott was careful not to make excuses for his side’s dismal performance on Friday night. It later emerged several players had been impacted by a virus in the days before the match but had been cleared by authorities to play.

Scott admitted the past two coronavirus-impacted years of constant travel had taken a toll on his players. He said he was proud of his players and his club.

The Cats followed upa grand final defeat at the Gabba last year - where they had led Richmond at half-time - with a preliminary final loss,a game in which Scott said they simply ran out of steam.

“Arguably,it’s tougher when you get towards the end of the year,and you’ve got a chance. I suspect that it would be a little easier finishing outside the finals,a bit of a sting,and then you can move on pretty quickly,” Scott said.

“It’s going to be tough on our people and tough on our club. But we’ll bounce back.”

The Cats,having won only two of seven preliminary finals under Scott,have 12 players aged 30 or older on their listand will need to decide whether a win-now mentality is still the right mantra. The Cats reloaded late last year by recruiting star forward Jeremy Cameron and veterans Shaun Higgins and Isaac Smith,but this was not enough to deliver a second premiership under Scott.

“We’re in that situation again where we’ve got a choice to make:we can roll over,or we can take the time we need to regroup,” Scott said.

“We were pretty battered towards the end of the season,not just the last couple of weeks but probably the six weeks leading into the finals series. There’s a few things that I won’t speak about ... that will become clearer over the next few weeks but,suffice to say,I’m proud of the way our guys endured,and we just completely ran out of steam.”

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