Geelong coach Chris Scott is backing his players to respond the right way after the club’s biggest AFL hiding this century.

The Cats lost second spot on the ladder to the Swans, whose 110-point win at the SCG on Thursday night was their biggest ever over Geelong.

It was the Cats’ biggest loss in 24 years and the seventh largest in their history.

“There will need to be a response,” Scott said.

“Our coaches haven’t been in that position much and our players certainly haven’t for a long period of time.

“I suspect we will focus on the opportunity and that is to see how we can respond to a really, really poor performance.”

Scott dismissed the suggestion the Cats should write the game off as an aberration.

“I would tend to think it would be the opposite,” he said.

“We need to move on relatively quickly and the players do, but it’s a loser’s mentality to say ‘it was one of those days and she’ll be right.'”

He suggested they had erred in not adopting a more defensive, damage-limitation attitude as the game got away.

“Maybe we could have shut the game down and accepted a smaller loss,” Scott said.

“Or we could have kept trying to try to fix things to give ourselves a chance to win the game; we chose the latter and it clearly didn’t work.”

Sydney’s formidable trio of power forwards, Kurt Tippett, Lance Franklin and Adam Goodes combined for 12 goals.

But Scott was adamant they and their red-hot side could be beaten, despite enjoying a six-match winning streak.

“They are a very good team, no question about that, that’s stating the bleeding obvious,” Scott said.

“But I suspect it will be a season where teams ebb and flow with form based on player availability, the fixture, a whole range of things.

“If you’re off and they are on then the margin can really blow out.

“Maybe I’m hoping, I could be clutching at straws.

“They got beaten by GWS round one, I understand they are improving and they got some players back.

“But I am very confident that we will improve and we will get some players back.”