GEELONG chief executive Brian Cook says the Cats will thoroughly review the club's coaching, strategy and list management as the assessment of what went wrong against the Demons begins at the Cattery.

Cook told SEN 1116 that the process had already begun after the disappointment of Friday night.

“I think we're up for a deep analysis and we're ready for it,” he said.

"It's still very raw and to say the least we're really disappointed about the weekend and so the analysis has begun for us.

“There's a lot of meetings that we planned this week particularly around the coaches and our strategy moving forward and our style moving forward which will run into our list management strategy as well.”

The Cats were beaten in most aspects of the game against Melbourne, with the Demons dominating possession, inside 50s, contested ball, clearances and tackles on the night.

"I'm not a coach but to me it's rather obvious that you've got the possession type football and the pressure type football. We've shown some weakness I think in relation to the pressure," Cook said.

“Melbourne were by far the better side, I don’t think I’ve seen Melbourne play with that sort of pressure for a long, long time, maybe since the John Northey days.

“Having said that, we really didn't perform well on the weekend, we know that and we’re going to do something about it.”

While some adjustments may need to be made to Geelong’s style of play, Cook said the assessment was not a criticism of Chris Scott.

“Making the finals 13 years out of 15 says that we’ve done pretty well over the past 15 years and both Mark Thompson and Chris Scott have been at the front of that.”

“They’re both good coaches. It probably time for a really good look at what we’re doing right through.”

That process will involve taking a long and hard look at the club’s past recruitment strategy.

"I think we have to look at that (recruitment philosophy) I can't say too much but I think we need to do that,” Cook said.

“I think the evolution of the draft has changed so much that you can err on the side of trading or picking up young kids or the combination of both, we have to decide whether we continue to go through both or whether we err to one side or the other or go back to simply just drafting kids. They're the decisions we need to make."

Cook hasn’t shut the door on topping up on established AFL talent however, highlighting free agent Luke Dahlhaus as a player that could have helped the Cats against the Demons.

"If you looked at our game on the weekend we had one tackle inside our (forward) 50 in the first half. A player like Luke Dahlhaus is of great interest to us because he applies that pressure."

Cook also backed in the Cats’ recruitment of favourite son Gary Ablett.

"I think it has (paid off)," Cook said.

"It depends what the expectations of people were, I think some people felt that Gary Ablett coming home thought it was the difference between us playing in the grand final and not.

"The reality is I think the success of our club is making sure the bottom 12 players improve as much as the three guys (Ablett, Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood)."

Despite significant criticism, Ablett finished the year ranked 13^th in the league for disposals per game whilst also kicking 16 goals.