GEELONG coach Chris Scott expects some sleepless nights ahead as he tries to work out why the Cats performed so poorly against Collingwood on Saturday.

Scott said he expected some interesting theories to be thrown around but the simple fact, in his view, was that the Cats just had too many in-form players who did not play well.

"We've got some guys who have been in really good form who did not play very well," Scott said.

"Sometimes we overcomplicate it." 

He bemoaned the missed opportunities in front of goal with the Cats missing 11 chances to convert – with four set shots missed in the second quarter – compared to the Magpies' four failures in front of goal.

Scott said that inability to convert was no different to the previous week when they blew some chances against Adelaide but this time there was no escape route and the wilfulness bit the Cats.

Acknowledging it was an area they needed to improve Scott said it was just a matter of working hard to regain confidence.

"We're not going to throw our hands in the air and say this is getting the better of us. We've just got to make sure we do the work," Scott said.

"We don't have guys with massive technical issues in their kicking actions. We're just going through a phase at the moment where we are not finishing off our hard work and if you continue to do that over a long period of time you are just a poor side."

The Cats are not a poor side, hence Scott's frustration with their performance, although he emphasised his view that the Magpies deserved to win.

He said the opposition won the ground ball battle, which was critical, and the Magpies were allowed to share the ball around the back half free of pressure. 

"They were able to control the ball with too much ease," Scott said. 

"They executed what they planned it seemed and we were very, very poor in executing our game."

It was hard to argue with that fact, the Cats’ skill execution was poor in every part of the game except for a five-minute patch at the start of the last quarter.

They failed to link and run and work through the ball through a chain of possessions as often as they had been able to in most of the first eight rounds.

Scott looked ready to cop the result on the chin, knowing that the fight still has many rounds remaining.

"[We're] really, really disappointed that we couldn't get it done…a really bad quarter let us down. We would love to have this one back but we can't," Scott said.

In half an hour a week's work had been washed away and the coach knew it meant an uncomfortable start to the next week.

"We didn't execute well today. I don't have all the answers right now but I won't sleep much over the next couple of days trying to work out what they are."