North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says there is a fair chance the McKay twins will line up against each other in Sunday’s pivotal AFL clash with Carlton.

Scott, himself an identical twin, told reporters on Thursday that Ben McKay is a chance to return to the line-up after a bout of pneumonia to take on exciting Blues forward Harry McKay at Marvel Stadium.

“The McKay brothers would be a salivating match-up but having been through that myself I’m not sure if I’m keen to put Ben through the misery of playing on his twin brother,” Scott said with a wry smile.

“That’s why I moved clubs, so I didn’t have to do it.

“(But) he’s a chance purely because of the threat that Carlton pose.

“We’ve had a few injuries through our back half and thrown them around a fair bit but it we’re going to match size and shape against them then he’s definitely a chance.”

Scott hosed down concerns over line-breaking midfielder Jared Polec, who had precautionary scans on a sore quad but is likely to take part in the encounter between teams looking to improve disappointing 1-5 records..

North have come in for some sharp criticism for their poor start to the season and Scott admitted keeping that negativity from affecting his players has been a focus.

“That’s always a challenge in any football team, probably any sporting environment, when you’re in a competition where there’s only one winner at the end of the year,” the coach said.

“The AFL competition at the moment is really tight and the results can swing all over the place.

“I think the challenge is to focus on what’s really important, and even before that you’ve got to be able to identify what that is, then put a plan in place.

“This industry’s a great industry because it’s unbelievably popular and people love it and there’s passion and scrutiny and media coverage, which are all great things.

“But how you handle it is up to you, so we’ve done a fair bit of work on that.”