Cats lament poor tribunal record A WEEK after pledging his support for serial tribunal attendee Steve Johnson, Geelong coach Chris Scott yesterday described his club's number of recent match review panel incidents as alarming. Speaking after Jimmy Bartel accepted a one-match ban for high and forceful front-on contact, Scott said the Cats were working on the problem, which could prove costly during the finals. Geelong's narrow loss to the Crows in Adelaide on Sunday provided a double blow, leaving Bartel and teammate James Podsiadly with high carry-over demerit points. Podsiadly was left with 93.75 points towards his future record after he accepted a reprimand for engaging in rough conduct against Richard Douglas. "We haven't got our head in the sand," Scott said. The numbers don't lie. The match review panel incidents over the past couple of months are alarming and it's something we need to address. But Geelong players have had poor tribunal records since Scott became coach at the start of 2011. In his first season, which resulted in a premiership, the Cats had six players suspended for a total of nine matches. Last year five Geelong players were suspended for a total of 10 matches -- including Bartel, who was banned for two games for striking Gold Coast's Trent McKenzie. Johnson and Kelly were also handed one-match sanctions last year. "Arguably, the most concerning thing is that we have players with carry-over points," Scott said. That's the system. We work within it. We have a few players that need to be even more careful than some others. With Geelong certain to play in the finals, the club has seven players on dangerously high demerit points. Johnson, who returns from his latest indiscretion against St Kilda at Simonds Stadium on Saturday night, has missed four games this season because of suspensions, while teammate James Kelly missed two rounds earlier in the season for his high bump on Essendon's Brendon Goddard. Captain Joel Selwood has 84 carry-over demerit points from last year that expire in round 21, and Paul Chapman's 60 points expire in the first week of the finals. However, the carry-over points of Bartel, Johnson (71.78 points and a 30 per cent loading), Kelly (89.06 points) and Joel Corey (60 points) do not expire until next year and any charge this season, even minor, could deny them of at least one finals game. The Bartel incident against Adelaide's Rory Laird was assessed as negligent conduct, medium impact and high contact, initially drawing 250 demerit points and a two-match sanction. He now has 87.50 demerit points on his record. "I'm very confident about what we're doing in these four walls," Scott said. At the end of the day I take responsibility for the discipline of our players, and so do they. The rules and the interpretations are continuing to evolve. I don't think that will stop in the near future. Everyone needs to adjust. There are very line-ball situations now where players lead with their head over the ball, and we need to be extremely careful. Whether you like it or not, that's what the rule-makers are telling us. We have absolutely no option but to fall into line.