Coach Brad Scott says North Melbourne need to tread a fine line between sticking to what has worked for them in recent weeks and addressing what went wrong last time against Western Bulldogs if they’re to avoid another nightmare loss.
The Bulldogs are in 15th spot and should present little danger to the eighth-placed Kangaroos in Saturday’s round-19 clash at Etihad Stadium.
However when the two sides last met in round seven, Brendan McCartney’s men scored an upset win by 18 points and Kangaroos coach Scott says his men need to be wary of the Bulldogs’ midfield talent.
“We got comprehensively beaten around the ball and around the contest. That’s still a strength of the Bulldogs,” Scott told reporters on Friday.
They’ve still got players of the quality of Matthew Boyd and Ryan Griffen and Tom Liberatore and Mitch Wallis.
“They’ve got some good players in there who can win the ball so we’ll have to be all over that and make sure our ball winners get to the ball first.
“Matty Boyd ran around and had 44 possessions and Tory Dickson slipped under our guard and kicked four so I suppose it’s once bitten twice shy a little bit.
“We’re a very different team from the last game we played (against the Bulldogs) but if anything it has sharpened our focus on what they’re very good at.
“The combination of Boyd and Griffen really got on top of our guys. We’ll tighten that up.
“(But) we don’t want to go away too much from the way we’ve been playing because it has been pretty successful for us over the last couple of months.”
The Kangaroos had a 3-4 record after round seven but have climbed into the top eight with seven victories from their past 10 games. The Bulldogs have lost eight of their past 10 matches including six in a row.
North Melbourne have recalled small forward Cruize Garlett for Lindsay Thomas (suspended).
The Bulldogs have named Justin Sherman, Zeph Skinner, Dylan Addison and debutant speedster Jason Johannisen for Luke Dahlhaus (soreness), Lindsay Gilbee (soreness), Daniel Cross (shoulder) and struggling forward Liam Jones.
