The pre-season competition has been revamped making the first round a round-robin. For North Melbourne, that means two 40 minute games; one against Geelong, the other versus the Bulldogs. They’ll be played back-to-back at Skilled Stadium.
The clubs that play successive games can make changes only from the three emergencies, but those with a break can make unlimited changes.
“Unfortunately we’re restricted to playing only 29 players in the first NAB Cup game, so we can play 26 in the first game and make three changes to that side.
“It’s really frustrating because I don’t see why the teams that play in games one and three can pick from their entire squad, whereas the teams that play in games one and two and games two and three can only pick 29. It just seems unfair really.”
Scott says the club will now have to rethink its philosophy when the time comes to pick the squad.
“We were hoping to give everyone an opportunity in that first NAB Cup game but we’re not able to do that now, so we’ve got to try and spread the load in the remaining three practice games afterwards.
“We’d love to see Majak Daw playing down at Skilled Stadium but with just 29 players…it’s going to be tough to see if we can fit him in because there are other players who might deserve a spot ahead of him. So from that point of view it’s frustrating but it’s only one game.”
But there is one way of ensuring everyone gets a quality hit-out.
“Hopefully we can knock Geelong off, beat the Bulldogs and go through to NAB Cup round two because we’d like to give those players an opportunity at a higher intensity. The NAB Cup is definitely a higher intensity than the NAB Challenge.”
For the players, the next few weeks will be crucial to their chances of playing in the NAB Cup and round one.
“As I’ve said before, we’ve got 34 players who could rightly lay claim to being in the best side but 34 doesn’t go into 29 and then 29 doesn’t go into 22 when we play round one so there’s going to be fierce competition.”
Scott says North’s intra-club match in Ballarat on February 9 will be one for members and supporters to get along to.
“They can expect a pretty intense hit-out. We’re only going to play the one practice game so competition for spots in the NAB Cup will be fierce. We’ll pick two even teams and players will be fighting for spots.”
