NORTH Melbourne will continue to throw players into different positions for the rest of the season as Brad Scott searches for long-term flexibility in his list.
In Saturday night's loss to Gold Coast, Scott put Jack Ziebell to half-back, Jarrad Waite to a wing and Lindsay Thomas into the backline as he looked to find a spark.
And you can expect to see plenty more of it.
With Ben Cunnington (suspended) and Trent Dumont (rested) out and Ziebell pushed back, the Kangaroos were destroyed at the stoppages 56-31 as the Gold Coast midfield dominated.
Scott said his inside midfielders were taught a lesson, but he was looking at the bigger picture.
Five talking points: Gold Coast v North Melbourne
"We've been pretty settled in previous years and we're really looking to get some flexibility to our midfield group and our defence," Scott said.
"You see that probably with Waite playing on the wing, Ziebell at half-back, Lindsay Thomas at half-back - I don't think we've ever seen that at North Melbourne before.
"Part of that is we want to get Declan Mountford the experience of playing on Gary Ablett.
"We want to get Majak Daw playing forward ruck.
"If we want to get all those things, we've got to add some flexibility in other places."
WATCH: Brad Scott's full post-match media conference
Thomas was a late inclusion for Marley Williams (back spasms) and after a quiet three quarters, had more influence late in the match to finish with 13 disposals.
Unfortunately for the Kangaroos though, they couldn't make the most of their chances, particularly in a third quarter they dominated.
"We just lacked a bit of polish tonight," Scott said.
"I thought our second quarter was just a bit of a dog's breakfast.
"I thought about going next door to the timekeepers to see if we could try and bring half time forward because we just couldn't arrest some of the errors we were making in the second quarter and Gold Coast, to their credit, really looked to attack the game.
"They were looking to go forward pretty aggressively and a bit of a comedy of errors defensively.
"You only make those errors if the opposition is really attacking you and to the Gold Coast's credit they did that."
