NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott has conceded he may have made "a bit of an error" in selecting all of his key recruits within the first three rounds of the season.
Jared Polec, Jasper Pittard, Aaron Hall, Dom Tyson and impressive draftee Bailey Scott played in the season-opening loss to Fremantle, while Tom Campbell and top-10 pick Tarryn Thomas broke in since then.
In hindsight, a bit of an error on my behalf, because I probably brought them all in at the same time, because I anticipated that we could jell a lot quicker - Brad Scott on his recruits
The Kangaroos have blown strong starts the past fortnight to sit 0-3, which Scott admitted was "not ideal", ahead of a must-win clash with Adelaide on Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.
Scott forecast a return for midfield bull Jed Anderson, who resumed from a hamstring injury in the VFL last weekend, and hinted there could be more changes on top of that.
Defender Sam Wright and last week's match-day emergency Paul Ahern are others in the mix to come in.
"It's probably taken a little bit longer for us to jell as a team than I anticipated," the coach told reporters on Wednesday.
"Bringing in seven or so players … I thought that we could bring them together a little bit quicker than we have, so I've still got, in conjunction with our coaches, some work to do on that.
"I don't think we can accelerate it any more than just keep on working on our education and how we want to play (and) reinforcing the positives, but also holding everyone accountable to the way we want to play…
"As I said, that's been, in hindsight, a bit of an error on my behalf, because I probably brought them all in at the same time, because I anticipated that we could jell a lot quicker."
Mason Wood is also set to be named in the North squad if he sufficiently recovers from the calf tightness that ended his night before half-time in the VFL last Saturday night.
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Wood is one of the options, along with third-year forward Nick Larkey, to come in and help support Ben Brown, with Tom Campbell's position looking shaky.
Brown received criticism this week for his reduced output going back to round 18 last season, as well as for his perceived lack of defensive pressure.
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"(Todd) Goldstein's a high game time ruckman and he plays his best when he plays that way," Scott said.
"We've got to weigh up, 'Do we get more benefit in the ruck versus a genuine key forward to support Browny?'.
"I wish I had an absolute black and white answer on that, but the truth is I'm still trying to work on the mix myself, so we've got some work to do.
"We'll potentially continue to tinker with the side until we click, but … we've got more options available to us, arguably, than we've had in a very long time, we've just got to get that mix right."
Scott said defending better was a priority, especially from clearance losses, which has been a weakness for North Melbourne so far.
Making that area more urgent is the fact the Crows rank No.2 for scores from stoppages.
"The reality is 0-3 is not ideal – far from – so we've handicapped ourselves so far this season," he said.
"But we feel like when we focus on the facts of our game and the areas that we know we can do better, we think we're more capable than our results are showing.
"But even in-game, we put ourselves in two winning positions and we've been really disappointed we've let both Brisbane and Hawthorn off the hook."
