BRAD Scott has confirmed he will coach against twin brother Chris in North Melbourne's crucial clash against third-placed Geelong on Saturday night.
Scott missed North's 70-point win over Richmond last Friday night after being hospitalised with a viral illness, but told NMFC.com.au on Monday afternoon he would be fit to coach against the Cats.
The Roos coach returned to work on Monday morning, but North coaching director Darren Crocker, who filled in as coach against the Tigers, led the team review of the win at Hobart's Blundstone Arena.
Scott said he would be back in charge from Tuesday and would run training as normal in the lead-up to Saturday night's game.
Scott's illness came on quickly in the lead-up to last Friday night's game and it was not until he was driving to Melbourne airport the evening before the match that he realised he would be unable to coach.
"I was feeling fine on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, I felt a little bit sick but we'd had a few guys with a few little minor ailments so being male – and the way you usually do things is 'I'll be right' – I just pushed my flight back a little bit later so that I could try and recover," Scott said.
"But on the way to the airport I got significantly worse, so the club doctor – both club doctors were fantastic – just got me straight into hospital to get me seen.
"(They) ruled out any major life-threatening type illness, which was pretty good to get those things ruled out straight away, but unfortunately I woke up Friday morning even worse.
"So (I spent) another day in hospital, the guys looked after me, but now I'm fine."
Scott watched the win against the Tigers from his hospital bed and said the Roos' impressive performance had made it a relatively stress-free experience.
"It's fantastic that we've got some processes in place that everything was really seamless," Scott said.
"Darren Crocker knows what to do now, he's very experienced at taking over in caretaker roles – he's done it three times for us now – and the leadership group stood up and took control of the game.
"So it certainly made it a bit easier to watch and fortunately we got the result, which was the most important thing."
Saturday night's game is a big one for both North and Geelong.
North will likely need to win to hold on to top spot from the Sydney Swans, and third-placed Geelong will probably fall out of the top four if it loses.
Brad holds a 5-4 edge over Chris in the Scott brothers' previous nine contests as senior coaches, with North winning the past three of those games.
