Geelong coach Chris Scott says the football world is now realising the early season hype around his side was unjustified.

The Cats remain second favourite for the 2016 premiership across betting markets – despite shock losses to Collingwood and Carlton in the past fortnight – but the senior coach argues they are yet to earn that tag.

“I would contend that we don’t have any right to say we’re one of the better teams in the competition,” Scott told Fox Footy on Monday night.

“It certainly wasn’t our view internally a couple of weeks ago and now I think everyone is starting to agree with us because we’ve put up a couple of poor performances. But it’s tight and if you have a few cogs in the chain that aren’t firing, you’re in a bit of trouble.”

The Cats now face Greater Western Sydney at Simonds Stadium on Saturday evening with the chance to steady the ship ahead of further clashes with top-four opponents North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs leading into the bye.

It’s a three-week block which demands better than two weeks previous.

"We've always been a team that needs to be firing on all cylinders,” Scott said.

"If you compare our last fortnight to our previous fortnight, for example, we've had too many parts of our game that are way off. When you perform like that, you do set yourself up for accusations that you're not trying as hard as the opposition.”

"If you pick out some isolated examples ... it's hard to argue because you look at it and think, 'what a lack of effort'."