“I have seen a couple of North’s game and they have beaten some good sides and played some good football,” Milburn said.
“And they seem to play pretty well against us so we will hopefully get back to on the winners’ list by playing the Geelong style of footy.
“Especially in the third quarter last week (against St Kilda), it was disappointing - they outnumbered us everywhere, won the contested ball and were all over us.
“It wasn’t the type of footy we are used to playing.”
Critics have lined up Geelong after St Kilda’s small forwards kicked nine of their 10 goals last week and after Carlton carved up the Cats with a trio of smaller goal kickers earlier in the year.
In-form North Melbourne little man Lindsay Thomas comes into the game against Geelong off a career-best seven goals a couple of weeks ago.
But Milburn is adamant Geelong has the defence to counter any mix it may face.
“We have played plenty of other sides with small forwards and kept them quiet,” he said.
“Sides have beaten us with small forwards but plenty of other sides have them and we shut them down.
“People can think what they like but I think our side matches up pretty well against most.
“If they have talls we have a few talls to, but we just take it as it comes.”
He said the focus had quickly turned to this week’s clash with North after Monday’s review of the loss to the Saints.
“There is no point, Friday night’s Friday night, the better side won, now we move on, get back to playing the best type of footy we can,” he said.
“Having losses is part of the game.
“We keep the focus of just playing footy, and winning enough games to get in the top four.
“The competition is pretty even and there are not too many easy games out there.
“We are in pretty good shape, hopefully we’ll get a few back this week.”
Milburn, 33, is No. 5 on the Cats on the all-time games list with 267 matches under his belt. He is within striking distance of No.4 Garry Hocking with 274.
However, he has a fair way to go to reach Ian Nankervis on 325, Sam Newman on 300 and Peter Riccardi (288).
