IT'S NOT quite a year since North Melbourne played Carlton – round 21 last year, to be exact.

On that day, the top-four-bound Kangaroos smashed the bottom-four-destined Blues by 82 points, with Aaron Edwards and Drew Petrie kicking four each, Eddie Sansbury three, and Lance Whitnall slotting three for Carlton.

This season, the Roos are again chasing a top four spot, currently being held out by the Sydney Swans on percentage – admittedly a significant 16 per cent – while Carlton are likely to just miss the eight after a vastly improved year.

And while it's a quirk of the draw that sees two teams meet for the first time of the year in round 20, coach Dean Laidley says anything about last time they played is utterly irrelevant.

"I wouldn't imagine any records or past games would have anything to do with them, they're a completely different side to anything that we've come up against with any previous Carlton sides," he said.

"They've got a different coach, a different coaching panel, they play a hell of a lot differently, so I wouldn't have thought past history will have much to do with Sunday afternoon."

Laidley admitted playing a side for the first time of the year, so late in the season, was unusual, but said it didn't alter the side's preparation.

"It's a bit strange, yeah. It's a bit strange and it happened to us last year, I think we played Collingwood in round one and didn't play them again for the rest of the year, and played Port Adelaide in round two and then played them in a preliminary final.

"That's the vagaries of the draw, I suppose.

"You just get on with it – you play who you play, I think.

"We spend the same amount of time on them and give them the same amount of information about the opposition, because at the end of the day, it's still about what we do, and how we go about it and how we attack the ball.".