“There’s no doubt it’s a challenge but to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best so we welcome the opportunity to play on the big stage against big opposition,” Scott told kangaroos.com.au.
“If we’re good enough, we’ll get to the pointy end of September.”
Having just overseen the club’s second pre-season training session out at Craigieburn, Scott believes his men will handle the pressure well.
“The fixture’s something we can’t control so we’re just focusing on being as good as we can be and we’ll play whoever, wherever, regardless of breaks, regardless of all those things so it doesn’t concern us.
“We’re just out to try and beat the best and we’ve certainly got an opportunity to do that next year.”
With a third trip to Utah just weeks away and heading into his fifth season as a head coach, Scott acknowledges a tough start against Collingwood, Geelong and Sydney means the Roos can’t afford to put a foot wrong.
“Everyone always wants to have a good pre-season but there’s no doubt that we’re going to have to be up and running early.
“It‘s terrific we’ve got the premiers from the last three years, three weeks in a row. So it’s going to be a real challenge but again, we don’t want an easy run to the finals, we want to prove that we’re worthy contenders and to do that we’ve got to beat the really good teams and we get that chance very early on.”
While many might argue North has been penalised for finishing high on the ladder, Scott points out the club has also been rewarded with three Friday nights.
“I think it’s really going to test our group on the bigger stage. The AFL has always said that when we’re playing the footy that’s worthy of Friday nights, we’ll get more fixtures and they’ve certainly held up their end of the bargain.
“We welcome the opportunity to play really good teams in prime-time slots where our fans can get out and watch us play.”
