NORTH Melbourne ruckman Hamish McIntosh will aim to climb a mountain when his side locks horns with Fremantle on Saturday afternoon.

Aaron Sandilands, the competition's behemoth at 211cm and 125kg, is shaping as Fremantle's ace in an otherwise disappointing season.

He comfortably leads the league in hit-outs, with a game average of 31, and has graduated from his one-dimensional style of previous seasons.

He covers plenty of ground. He marks. He clears his own ball.

However, Sandilands' efforts can go wanting with opposition midfielders beating his to the touch – a plan the Roos will adopt.

"Obviously going into the game we know we're probably not going to get that many hit-outs, he's such a big guy, but we've just got to make sure we compete as best we can," McIntosh said.

"We really just [need to] get into him and give our midfielders the best chance. If we can make it a dead ball, that'd be great and give chances to Simmo (Adam Simpson), Harro (Daniel Harris) and Wellsy (Daniel Wells) to win the ball and get it going our way."

McIntosh has done his homework on the giant and, like many, has seen new strengths in his game.

"I've watched a few tapes of him lately and he's definitely improving around the ground," he said. "He gets a lot of the ball, I think he had 20 possessions [against Port Adelaide] which is pretty good for a ruckman.

"That part of his game has improved and when he's gone forward, he [can have] four or five scoring shots ... so that's another dangerous part of his game. We've just got to make sure we're on the ball with that."

Improvement has come in North's camp, too, with McIntosh and fellow tall David Hale clicking after an inconsistent start to the year.

Hale has presented an option in attack, booting four against the Cats last week, while McIntosh's aggression in the contests has become more noticeable.

"I think the last three or four weeks we've really started to get some consistency about our game," McIntosh said. "I think David's really gone well up forward, I think he's kicked nine or 10 goals the last four weeks which is outstanding. Obviously last week was a great game for him.

"For myself, it was a bit of a scratchy start to the year, a bit up and down, a bit of inconsistency, but definitely the last four weeks it's been good to play some good, solid football and have an impact on a game. I've got back to basics.

"The turn in form has been very positive and hopefully now for the rest of the season it keeps going that way."