Nullifying the Brisbane Lions' forward line is an ominous task, but North Melbourne defender Shannon Watt believes his side has the right ingredients for Saturday night's encounter.
Spearheads Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw combined for 12 goals in last weekend's rout of the Saints, and now sit within the season's top six goalkickers.
However, in North's favour is its bevy of backmen – Michael Firrito, Josh Gibson, Drew Petrie and Watt can fill a range of roles, complemented by small defenders Daniel Pratt and Leigh Harding.
"We've got plenty of guys that can go through them and we've got a lot of guys that can play small and tall as well," Watt said. "We're very flexible.
"It'll be a big job for the midfield as well this week because that's where their supply comes from. If the midfield can do their job and we do ours, hopefully it will go a long way to getting us a win."
After handing the Western Bulldogs their first loss of the season, Watt indicated that the Kangaroos had put some fresh work into preparing for the Lions – who entered the top eight after successive victories.
But the key is for plans to be put into practice.
"Basically for us, it's pretty simple [as it is] for all the teams," he said. "If you can stop Brown or Bradshaw – one of the two – and then try and keep everyone else's influence to a minimum, you'll go a long way to doing it.
"We've gone over their strategies and hopefully a few things that we can do to stop them getting what they want.
"I could get Brown [or] Bradshaw for parts of the game," he added. "We haven't spoken about it at length as yet. Our main meeting's tomorrow up in Brisbane after our training session, so I'm sure I'll be on them here and there along with Spud (Michael Firrito) and Gibbo (Josh Gibson). But we'll probably just rotate through them there.
"I might even get a (Jared) Brennan or someone like that for bits and pieces as well. But like I said, our flexibility's our strength, so we'll probably all go through them and once we find the best match-up on the day, hopefully we can stick to it and go well."
