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When Chris Scott began his AFL career at Brisbane in 1993, it was due, in large part, to Nathan Buckley, now Collingwood’s coach-in-waiting.
But if Geelong gives Scott his first AFL premiership as a coach against the Magpies on Saturday, there won’t be any need for a thank you.
Brisbane drafted Scott with pick 12 in ’93, a selection they received from Collingwood as a part of the deal in which Buckley went to the Magpies following his “warehousing” period with the then Bears.
From that point, everything Scott has achieved in football has been down to him.
In his first playing season with the Bears in 1994, Scott won the league’s Rising Star award.
Four years later he was the club’s best-and-fairest and in 2001, alongside his twin brother Brad, he played in Brisbane’s first premiership side.
The two brothers lined up against each other in May this year for the first time, Chris as coach of Geelong and Brad in the same role at North Melbourne.
After fielding the inevitable questions about themselves in the lead-up to that game, Brad Scott spoke of the inspiration his brother had given him and the dedication he had to football.
“In the beginning I think everyone thought Chris would join me at Hawthorn,” he said.
“So it was probably a surprise when I went to Brisbane to play. But we knew we would play together up there.
“We had to work hard, but that’s what he’s good at.”
Brad Scott joined his brother at Brisbane in 1998, after one season with the Hawks.
Brisbane collected the wooden spoon in the brothers’ first year together, but within five years the club had won three premierships, the Scott brothers having played in two of them.
The round-seven match between the brothers reinforced the qualities both had displayed as players.
“We’ve never been the people to engage in one-upmanship,” Brad said.
“It has nothing to do with me v Chris, it’s got to do with Geelong v North Melbourne.”
Chris Scott also showed how well he had assumed a coaching mentality.
“I don’t think it would be a very good message to your players, to your club and supporters,” he said.
“There’s a bit of interest in us and we understand that, we’re prepared to accept that.
“But this game is a lot bigger than the two of us, surely.”
Geelong appointed Scott as senior coach in the wake of the awkward departure after 11 seasons of Mark Thompson and the more telling loss of Gary Ablett.
If that wasn’t enough pressure, the club also preferred him to a couple of its own – the much-loved former player and life member Ken Hinkley and Brenton Sanderson, another former player who had been one of Thompson’s assistants.
On the positive side, he inherited Blake Caracella and Nigel Lappin as assistants, both of whom he had played with at Brisbane.
And Sanderson was convinced to stay on for another season before being snapped up as Adelaide coach.
Announcing Scott’s surprise appointment after an impressive stint as a Fremantle assistant coach, Geelong chief executive Brian Cook paid him a unique tribute.
“We looked at 120 coaches around Australia,” Cook said.
“Chris came out of that with flying colours.
“We fell in love with Chris … it was marriage.”
Whether the Geelong players shared the CEO’s initial ardour is doubtful, but they definitely respected the new coach.
Club captain Cameron Ling recalled Scott had “scared the hell” out of him as a player, and he knew he wasn’t alone in that view.
Scott and his brother were among the most ruthless combinations in the game, even if they professed to being far from enamoured with the Kray Twins moniker.
But the Scott boys are a lot more than just tough.
Their mother Lynne raised them, and three other siblings, alone after their father Colin, a decorated Vietnam war veteran died when the twins were eight.
Anyone who saw the open affection they displayed for her during last year’s Rising Star awards ceremony would understand a lot about what makes the Scott brothers tick and a lot of what Geelong saw in Chris.
After two defeats this season, Collingwood also have a fair idea.
Enough to know that the third time around, they might need to be lucky.
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