Menzel believes Scott will risk his players running out of energy in the pre-season competition, rather than compromise their preparation for the home and away matches.
"Pre-season's been pretty tough this year," the 19-year-old forward said. "We've stepped it up from last year and we've been running a lot more k's.
"I think we'll still have a pretty decent crack at it leading into the NAB Cup, so maybe come the first round of the NAB Cup we might not be at 100 percent. But that should hold us in good stead for round one [of the home and away season].
"We've still got a few more weeks of really hard training and then I guess it will drop down towards the end of the NAB Cup."
Cats assistant coach Nigel Lappin agrees that the Geelong players have plenty more tough sessions ahead of them, regardless of whether they progress past the opening round of the pre-season competition.
"I couldn’t imagine we’d taper off our training too much," Lappin said. "I think we’ll push ahead through the NAB Cup. We’re still working out how much match-time we want each of our guys to play.
"We’ll work out which senior players need conditioning, and obviously we want to look at the second and third-year players who will hopefully be coming in and making our team better over the next couple of years."
Menzel, who made his debut in round 20 last year and kicked three goals in his second game against Carlton, says the NAB Cup presents an opportunity for Geelong's young players to show their new coach what they can do.
"I was aiming to get through pre-season and then play NAB Cup, so that looks like it's all going to work out," he said. "I want to take my chance in that and set myself up for round one."
