Following the 25-point win against West Coast, a proud Scott revealed his passion for his new club and the old 'Shinboner Spirit' that he has attempted to refashion to bring it into the 21st century.
“There is an amazing spirit that exists in this club that I’m still learning about,” Scott said.
“I have spoken before about the ‘Shinboner Spirit’ and I still think it is being misunderstood.
“The ‘Shinboner Spirit’ is something the club is extremely proud of but it is the negative connotations that have been associated with that spirit that I don’t like and we’ve got to shake.
“But the spirit is certainly there and the players were very keen to respond [from last week’s 104-point loss] and I thought they did today and that spirit was certainly evident.”
After enjoying his first win as a senior coach, a smiling Scott confessed: “It is much better winning than losing.”
However, the thing that pleased Scott most was the effort put in by both senior and junior players, particularly best-on-ground Brent Harvey, Daniel Wells and teenager Ryan Bastinac - who kept West Coast’s elite midfielder Daniel Kerr to two touches in the first half.
Scott said he was feeling a sense of “satisfaction” for his players, after they spent a gruelling week on the track in the wake of their abysmal round-two loss to St Kilda.
“Today was a great reward for effort. I thought the effort the boys put in today was terrific. Sometime you don’t always get rewarded for that effort but we did today which was really pleasing,” he said.
North captain Harvey responded to what he dubbed his worst ever game with a sizzling display that included 41 touches.
“I said in this room last week that I wasn’t worried about [Harvey] at all because that is what champions do, they bounce back, and he is an absolute out-and-out champion and he proved that again today,” Scott said.
He also applauded the effort of Wells and said he had been unfairly scrutinised after the first two games.
“When someone has immense ability as Wellsy does there are always very high expectations and sometimes they can be a victim of those expectations,” Scott said.
“I think the only thing that has been said about Daniel that is unfair is probably about his performance in the last two weeks because he was very, very underdone going into the season.
“He has had basically no pre-season, about 40 minutes of football in the pre-season and we’ve thrown him straight in - so I thought his performance today was terrific.”
But Scott was aware it was just one win and the club was under “no illusions” of where it was in its re-building process.
“We have still got a lot to work on,” he said. “Today was great, the players should be very pleased, but it doesn’t get any easier next week against a hardened side like Sydney.
“The players have just got to enjoy this win and move on very quickly and start to focus on next week and also the direction we’re heading in the long term.”
