JOEL Selwood remains upbeat about the Cats' prospects this season, despite the 10-goal defeat against Hawthorn on Easter Monday.

"We are still really confident in the work we’ve put into pre-season," the skipper wrote on his blog after the loss to the Hawks.

"And as we’ve seen over the weekend, the competition is so even and you’ve just got to show up every week and perform.

"Hawthorn is a well-oiled machine on a mission and we were beaten in almost every aspect of the game.

"The Hawks are going to be hard to beat when they’re up and going, but we have to find a way to get to that level and go past them."

Cats vice-captain Harry Taylor is also staying positive as he looks toward the big round two clash with Fremantle at Simonds Stadium on Sunday.

"It will be good to be back at our home ground," Taylor told CatsTV.

"Freo obviously had a really good win (over Port Adelaide on Sunday), so we're expecting a really tough challenge."