Sandilands, the competition's dominant big man, will miss the clash with a foot injury, with Kepler Bradley recalled to take his place.
Bradley kicked four goals in Fremantle's 61-point thrashing of the Kangaroos in round 10, and Scott is wary of where his side may fall down again.
"We know what a good player he (Bradley) can be for them," Scott said from Arden Street on Friday morning.
"We don't want to go in thinking because Sandilands is not going to be there, that it's going to be easy for us in the centre bounces and around the ground.
"Fremantle this year have been outstanding in converting their hit-outs to clearances, and have been fairly dominant in their scoring from stoppages.
"Just because you win the hit-out, it doesn't always mean you're going to get an effective clearance."
Scott conceded the wrong decision was made when selecting three talls for the clubs' round-10 encounter at Subiaco, prompting him to go with a smaller forward line for this match.
Bolstered by the return of Daniel Wells, Cruize Garlett, Daniel Pratt and Nathan Grima, the Roos will also need Lindsay Thomas to rediscover form in his second game back from a knee injury.
Thomas kicked 5.5 from four marks inside 50 when opposed to Roger Hayden in round 10, and added a seven-goal haul at Etihad Stadium two weeks later.
Scott said the imbalance of his side may have worked to Thomas' advantage on that occasion and that North was still tinkering with its attack after 18 rounds.
"Not many players do that to Roger Hayden. He's one of the elite small defenders in the competition, there's no doubt about that," he said.
"To get 10 shots at goal was a fantastic achievement, but I've never seen [Hayden] get beaten twice in a row by the same player.
"It will be a real challenge for Lindsay, but we've just got to get the balance of our forward structure right. I've been working really hard on it.
"Lachie Hansen's provided us with another good option, but it's all got to work in synergy. It's no good going into the game hoping Lindsay will kick goals for us, or Aaron Edwards will kick goals."
Scott said Thomas had what it took to be an elite small forward, and that the 22-year-old's endurance had reached a point where he could spend stints in the midfield.
He also said his players, including first-year midfielders Ben Cunnington and Ryan Bastinac, were conditioned to run out the season but couldn't afford any more lapses in intensity like those seen in last week's heavy loss to the Bulldogs.
