The Cats have an extra day's break on the Dees, who played in the stifling heat and humidity of Darwin last Saturday night, but Bailey isn't looking for excuses ahead of this week's clash.
"The fixture is what it is, so you just deal with it," he said from Junction Oval on Wednesday.
"We knew [that] at the start of the year and when the game comes, you hope your players recover as well as they can.
"We knew they were going to be physically and mentally tired, so therefore we organised our program around that.
"Today we start to get back on track; we start to train as quickly and as effectively as we can to get them out of the last 72 hours".
Most Melbourne players slumped to the turf utterly exhausted after the thrilling one-point win over Port Adelaide and Bailey admitted club's conditioning staff had been faced with a delicate balancing act in plotting their recovery.
"We haven't done much this week, but you can't do nothing," he said.
"You've still got to get them active, but you probably do it a bit later in the week. The worst thing you can do is sit down and do nothing actually. You've got to get them up and going and get them mobile and we've done that.
"We need to get into today's training and any lethargy … we'll hopefully knock out today".
Bailey lauded Geelong both for its talent-laden squad and the way its players combine to work as a team. With two premierships in the last three years, the coach opined that the Cats could well become regarded as a side that changed the game in years to come.
But despite the credentials of their opposition, the Dees won't be looking to stack their defence and hope to grind out an ugly upset win.
"You can't be defensive against them. Whenever you play defensive football against them they just choke you up and make you pay," Bailey said.
"We've still got to attack and we've still got to take them on.
"If you remain process-driven then the outcome will take care of itself. Our process has still got to be the same. We've got to get in the game and we've got to do the things that we've been practicing and doing well longer and better than our opponent and we give ourselves a chance.
"Whatever happens in the game, at the end of it, a lot of our blokes will come out with a valuable learning experience."
Bailey forecast changes to the side to bring in some fresh legs.
Cameron Bruce (hamstring) and Matthew Bate (ankle) both missed last week's game through injury with Bruce rated the more likely to return this week.
