How Essendon responds to the World Anti-Doping Agency's appeal is of little concern to Brad Scott.
North Melbourne take on the Bombers at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, just days after the 2012 supplements saga gained new life with WADA's decision to appeal the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal's verdict clearing 34 past and present Essendon players.
The under-siege Bombers scored a famous win against highly-favoured Fremantle at Subiaco in April, 2013, when calls for Hird to resign over the supplements scandal reached a crescendo, but Scott said he couldn't concern himself with the possibility of a similar display of resilience.
"If we take our focus off what's important for us and start focusing too much on our opposition we'll take our eye off the ball," Scott said on Wednesday.
"We're really focused on ourselves this week. We're really happy with our preparation to this point and we're really focused on what we did well against Richmond and also some of the things we need to fix up.
"All questions about Essendon are best directed to them. I'm here to focus on my team and get us up for Friday night."
The Kangaroos are faced with their own distraction in the week leading up to the clash, with Scott under police investigation for allegedly assaulting a security guard at Blundstone Arena in Hobart on Saturday.
While Scott declined to elaborate on the matter for legal reasons, he insisted it would not detract from his team's preparation.
"I'm a footy coach and we move on really quickly in this industry to the next game," he said.
"We had a really good review of the Richmond game and we're straight into our preparation for this week."
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