By Ben Talintyre,James Dampney

Copyright news

Not for the first time, Smith was the talk of the footy world last week after he swore at Geelong Advertiser snapper Alison Wynd after she took photos of the All-Australian.

You can follow the AFL preliminary final between Geelong and Hawthorn here.

Smith apologised the following day, but not before copping it from much of the footy world for his brat-like behaviour.

But when Guthrie was asked about the incident on 3AW’s Wide World of Sports prior to the elimination final against Hawthorn, the 27-year-old stunningly said he hadn’t heard much about it.

“To be honest I only really heard about it through online. I don’t really even notice that some of those things are going on,” Guthrie said.

“There are things we like to try to live by, but it’s not really my business as well.

“I’m there to be Bailey’s teammate and he’s been an amazing teammate for everyone this year and he’s played some really important footy for us across the whole year and he’s fitted into our group really well.

“I’m here to support him along with all my other teammates.”

Geelong coach on Bailey Smith outburst

Cats coach Chris Scott declared earlier this week that Smith is “not perfect” as he addressed his star player swearing at a photographer last week.

While Scott admitted it wasn’t handled well, he acknowledged the star midfielder’s apology for the incident, in what he described as a learning experience.

“Being a middle-aged man … I’m probably a phone call guy,” Scott said in his pre-match press conference.

“That would be my preference, (but) I think the intention is the most important thing.

“The way Bailey responded in that moment, it’s been a build-up of things that have led Bailey to believe that he should be less trusting than I think he should be. We’ll work through these things, and you’ll see his side of the story a little bit. I don’t think there’s any sympathy in this room in particular, and I respect it to be honest.

“I’m pretty comfortable that while we acknowledge we’re not perfect, that we’ve got a pretty good track record.”

When pressed on if it lifted the lid on a potential cultural issue at the club, the Geelong coach dismissed that claim.

“We’ve worked really hard for a long period of time to get ourselves to the situation where we’re really proud of the way we go about our business,” he said.

“But within that, there’s always been this acknowledgment that we’re all human. That’s part of developing a good environment. While not accepting of behaviour that you don’t approve of, you do acknowledge that there’ll be hiccups along the way.

“We have a responsibility to our people to look after them as best as possible, and to help them develop and evolve along the way.”