Geelong coach Chris Scott says mercurial star Steven Motlop's brilliance isn't enough for him to overlook the occasional offering of "defensive rubbish".
Motlop failed to lay a single tackle in Sunday's 11-goal win over Essendon and gave only a half-hearted chase of an opponent in the opening minutes of the game.
Scott said the matter was addressed with Motlop, with the coach wary of allowing his playmaker to fall into bad habits.
"It's certainly not a matter of saying 'Well, he does some good stuff offensively so we'll put up with some defensive rubbish'," Scott told Fox Footy's AFL 360 on Monday night.
"He's an elite defensive player at times.
"I think (the first-quarter incident) looked a little bit worse than it actually was in reality (but) we've addressed it.
"It actually wasn't me directly ... it was a peer-to-peer conversation that was pretty constructive."
Daniel Menzel was the only other Cat to finish without a tackle to his name, but he was injured and didn't play in the second half.
As a team, Geelong laid just 37 tackles - they average just over 70 this season - in a lacklustre affair where they failed to take advantage of an opportunity to boost their percentage against the last-placed Bombers, who lost Brendon Goddard to a groin injury in the first quarter.
"It certainly wasn't a game for the ages ... we didn't feel like we played the game like we wanted it to be played," Scott said.
"Having watched Adelaide play the previous night and really take their chances ... that was a little frustrating but perspective is important.
"We played ok, we won by 11 goals and it's not the end of the world but we're cognisant of the fact that we'll need to play better than that."
The Crows belted Brisbane by 138 points at Adelaide Oval to move into third spot, while the Cats dropped back to fifth.
