North Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow knows what is coming: the Fremantle strangle.
But Swallow believes his Kangaroos can turn the tide of their AFL season against the Dockers at Perth’s Patersons Stadium on Sunday.
“They (Fremantle) are a top four side … really well drilled, really disciplined,” Swallow told his club’s website.
“So we know what we’re going to come up against.
“You know they’re going to strangle you.
“We have just got to make sure we win the footy inside on them and try and spread.
“It’s a big ground and we have got a lot of runners in our team, so if we can get it on the outside and spread them a bit, that might be the key for us to win.”
North desperately need a win – they’re 13th on the ladder with four victories.
The Kangas enter the clash against the fifth-placed Dockers after a bye which Swallow said refreshed players physically, but perhaps not mentally given their last result – a 15-point loss to Gold Coast.
Swallow had just 10 disposals in the defeat and shunned a personal review of his performance.
“I wouldn’t have got much out of it. I didn’t really worry about going through a review,” he said.
“The last four or five weeks I have been pretty down compared to my output at the beginning of the year so I’m looking forward to bouncing back and making sure that I can lead the boys really well.
“Last week the mood was pretty flat still. But you can definitely feel, coming back this week, everyone has had some time to reflect and analyse and are looking forward to getting back out there.
“We know we can play some good footy, it’s about time we put it out on the park in the second half of the year.”