Geelong coach Chris Scott says his AFL club faces a mental and physical challenge to bounce back from their tough win over Hawthorn, but he is confident they are up to it.

The Cats have just a six-day break between Monday’s bruising two-point win over the Hawks and their clash with North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The Kangaroos have a seven-day break and are coming off a vastly less-taxing huge win over Greater Western Sydney.

“There’s a physical component to it, a six-day break, but we’ve got a pretty resilient group and they’ve been through that before,” Scott said.

“We’ll back our people in to make sure they’re as well prepared as possible.

“I don’t have too many doubts about the mental side, but we won’t know that for sure until Sunday afternoon.”

Scott was confident captain Joel Selwood would play, despite copping some knocks to the head against the Hawks and that Steve Johnson would overcome a corked thigh.

“Are we going to be affected because it was a hard game? Probably, but we’ve got to be able to rise above that,” he said.

Ruckman Orren Stephenson should also return from a virus to play his second AFL game and help Trent West combat Kangaroos big men Hamish McIntosh, Todd Goldstein and Drew Petrie.

Scott said the Cats had not taken much notice of North’s big win over the Giants in their preparation, as they could learn much more from the Kangaroos’ much closer contest with Essendon in the opening round.