BRAD Scott makes no apologies for North Melbourne's decision to rest up to 10 players from Friday night's clash against Richmond, saying it will ensure the club enters its finals campaign next week in the best possible shape.
Scott stressed to reporters on Thursday that North would be playing to win against the Tigers, and dismissed concerns that resting so many players affected the integrity of the competition, saying the club had been upfront with the AFL about its intentions from the start of the week.
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"We've earned the right to play in the finals and that's been a really hard-fought battle and we've got some players who have been battling to get to the line each week, so we've got the opportunity to rest them and to let them freshen up in preparation for our finals assault next week," Scott said.
"On the flipside, we've also got some players who have been banging the door down in the VFL, who have been just absolutely waiting for an opportunity and they get their opportunity this week.
"We started the year with 39 players on our list who have played AFL footy so this Friday night we will go out with a team without a single debutant (and) two-thirds of our list and our team on Friday night will have played over 50 games.
"So I don't think anyone should be under any illusions as to our intention with the result tomorrow night. We're going out to win the game, there's absolutely no doubt about that.
"We make no apologies for the fact that I'm going to do the best thing by our club, the best thing by our players, the best thing by our team and our supporters, and that is to be in the best possible shape we can be in the first week of finals."
The Roos coach conceded North was "potentially" putting itself at a disadvantage against the Tigers by resting so many players, but would not reveal which Roos would have the week off.
However, the rested players are likely to include at least some of Todd Goldstein, Shaun Higgins, Brent Harvey, Ben Cunnington, Scott Thompson, Sam Wright and Sam Gibson, who have all played every game this year, and Drew Petrie, Jarrad Waite, Jack Ziebell and Michael Firrito, who have each missed one game.
North will avoid an away final against Adelaide if it loses to Richmond, with a defeat set to entrench it in eighth spot and set up a likely elimination final against the currently fifth-placed Tigers.
Scott denied pursuing a home elimination final had been a factor in the Roos' resting decision, pointing out that if they finished eighth they would play an away final in Sydney if the Swans were to surrender fourth spot with a loss to Gold Coast on Saturday night.
"We'd be pretty stupid to go out and lose a game and then have the Gold Coast beat Sydney and then us play an interstate final, so [avoiding an away final against Adelaide] hasn't entered our thinking," Scott said.
Scott was not worried that North could be flirting with its form on the eve of the finals, saying he had learned from his failure to rest players in an away clash with Greater Western Sydney the week before the Roos' 96-point loss to West Coast in the 2012 first Elimination Final.
"I played players who had niggles, I played players who were overly fatigued and then we preceded to travel to West Coast the next week and get absolutely obliterated and I swore to myself then if we were in that same position I wouldn't make the same mistake," Scott said.
North had announced earlier on Thursday that it had received AFL approval to rest up to 10 players from Friday night’s match.
