Geelong senior coach Chris Scott is welcoming his selection headache ahead of the Cats’ season opener in Perth.

Young players Brandan Parfitt, Tom Stewart and Zach Guthrie have all pledged strong cases for early-season debuts through the JLT Community Series, while others have seen limited to no minutes through injury.

Parfitt specifically was impressive once more as the Cats’ downed the Bombers in Bendigo by 22 points last week, but just who gets the nod for round one against Fremantle is the question facing Scott and his coaching staff over the next fortnight.

“The majority of guys that will play round one played today but we do have a few to come back that we’re very confident are in our best 22,” Scott told Cats Media.

“It just becomes a matter of trying to work out who of the players that played today goes out.”

“Brandan Parfitt has given himself every chance [to debut] and I’m confident he’ll play AFL footy this year at some stage. A couple of guys who haven’t had a lot of game time for us at AFL level the last year or two were okay as well so it’s nice to have some options.”

Geelong will travel to Perth for round one and face a new-look Dockers outfit buoyed by its own strong pre-season campaign.

The Dockers’ off-season recruiting drive looks to have paid divdends thus far and the fact they welcome back one of the game’s most dominant players in Nat Fyfe means the Cats will not be eased into the home and away season.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Scott said.

“We’re expecting the Freo of 2015 rather than the Freo of 2016. Obviously with the changes in personnel, they’ve brought some new players in who look pretty good and then they’ve got some absolute stars back who are also playing some good footy.”

“I don’t think anyone should even consider what they delivered last year. They are a top-four type team when they’re on-song and I think it’s going to be one of the harder games this year.”