The Kangaroos have had the wood on Eade’s team, winning their past five encounters against the Bulldogs including their two clashes last year.
While Murphy, recovering from a knee injury, is set to take a step closer to senior action by playing at VFL level this weekend, Eade says other players who haven’t previously played against the Kangaroos will be crucial.
“We haven’t beaten them since 2005 and they’ve certainly done well against us,” Eade said following his team’s light training run at Whitten Oval.
“There’ll be some different personnel to when we played them last time; we’re doing some different things which people might have noticed on the weekend and certainly the Kangaroos are doing some different things as well.”
Eade’s team has a decent record against most opposition sides but hasn’t dealt with the Kangaroos all that well in recent times.
The Bulldog coach was philosophical when asked why North Melbourne had managed to get the better of his men in their latest duels.
“People underestimate the Kangaroos every year,” he said.
“The main thing is that they are a good side.
“We’ve probably been unfortunate a few times [too] – there have been about three 300-game milestones [for their players]. That hasn’t helped!
“Last year we missed a shot on the siren [in one game], so I think the games are reasonably close and it’s just the fact that they’ve been in front at the right time.”
Earlier in the day, North Melbourne coach Dean Laidley had been talking up the Bulldogs saying they were the most improved of last year’s top four sides.
However Eade, while pleased with his team’s first-up display against Fremantle, wasn’t buying into that talk just yet.
“We had a great start to the season last year and then everybody criticised our last seven weeks,” Eade said. “It’s too early to tell.”
