AT ITS best North Melbourne remains capable of challenging the competition's best teams, with Saturday night's 60-point loss to the Hawks not a true reflection of the gap between the two teams, Roos coach Brad Scott says.
And Scott told reporters after the loss that North skipper Andrew Swallow (head knock) and Jarrad Waite (hamstring) were likely to be available for North's crucial clash against Richmond next Saturday.
The Roos coach said the 10-goal loss was a fair reflection of the Hawks' dominance but he was confident his players could bounce back quickly, knowing they had been uncharacteristically out-worked on Saturday night.
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"The boys know that (Hawthorn) are a good side but they also know that when we play to our capabilities we can challenge them," Scott said.
"And at times during the game we certainly challenged them but they responded in kind and were too powerful, too strong, too clean, too effective with their skills (and) really hurt us on the rebound a number of times.
"I don't think the margin suggests the (extent of the) difference between the teams, but certainly Hawthorn are still a very, very good unit and I thought they deserved their emphatic win tonight.
"I'm confident that we'll actually learn a lot out of this loss tonight because Hawthorn play a brand of footy when they're at their best [that has] won so many premierships."
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Swallow had a rough night against the Hawks.
Midway through the first quarter he copped a left forearm to the jaw from Hawks captain Luke Hodge that momentarily sent him to the ground.
Then late in the third quarter Ben Stratton caught him with a high tackle, which saw him taken from the ground under the substitute concussion rule.
Swallow was eventually substituted from the game for good early in the last quarter, but Scott said he had been fit to come back on and should be available to play the Tigers.
"I just think that we've got to be really careful with these things so he was cleared but in the end the coaching staff made the decision not to put him back on," he said.
"So he should be fine, he was fine to come back on medically.
"But with all these things you've got to see how they recover (in) 24 hours, 48 hours and so on. So we'll wait and see."
Waite was a late withdrawal from Saturday night's game but Scott said he too should be fit to take on Richmond.
"We came off a six-day break which meant we needed to give him at least five of those six days to recover," Scott said.
"It was only very, very minor and our medical staff felt if it was a Sunday game he probably would have played.
"So that gives you hope for next week, but again he has to be perfect otherwise he won't play."
