WESTERN Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has ruled out a defensive switch for Aaron Naughton, despite the forward plugging an injury-caused hole in the 21-point win over North Melbourne.
Tim O'Brien injured his hamstring, while Liam Jones fractured the radius bone in his forearm in the first quarter, heading straight to hospital for x-rays as the game played out.
KANGAROOS v BULLDOGS Full match coverage and stats
"If we didn't have anyone else who could possibly play there on our list, you'd have to consider it, absolutely," Beveridge said post-match.
"But even yesterday, James O'Donnell, Josh Bruce, Ryan Gardner, they were all pretty solid in Footscray's win against Williamstown out there, so there are some boys there who can come in and play those important roles.
"As much as they weren't necessarily at their best the week before, they're still there. Aaron's really important for us forward. It's unlikely, because we've got options.
"They got a bit too much bang for their buck with their inside 50s in pretty open plays at times. We'd like to be able to stop a few more of those. So, at the moment, no, I imagine 'Naughts' is going to stay forward."
The Bulldogs go into their bye in seventh spot on the ladder, with Beveridge saying there is still room for improvement.
"I said it last week, we're just a margin off the best teams in the comp. Today, we had 72 inside-50s, so we're playing the way we want to play," Beveridge said.
"But we're making too many errors with the football in space, and sometimes out of congestion, we're giving the opposition too many looks.
"So, there are some things there and we've had some challenges with our personnel over the last period of time, which is just matter of fact, every team confronts it.
"In this game, you can bridge those gaps. You need a little bit of good fortune with your personnel and injury toll, but we've got to do a few things better than what we've been doing, consistently, to threaten.
"At least we've given ourselves a look. We're in there, in the lower part of the eight, and it's our objective in our last nine games to see if we can nip at the heels of the more established sides at the top end."
North Melbourne caretaker coach Brett Ratten was pleased with elements of his side's performance, particularly preventing the threatened blow-out.
"The biggest thing is our ability to hang in has improved. The game got away from us, they kicked four goals in six minutes at the start of the last quarter, and it was like, wow, this has gone from an opportunity to be in the game and perhaps win, to poof, we're hanging in there," Ratten said.
"We've had five weeks of pretty competitive footy and you get caught up in saying, 'that's what we like' – and we do, I'm not trying to say we don't – but we've got to become better than that.
"That's about digging in and scrapping, that's got to become the norm. That's not 'we're happy to see it', that has to be the normal."
Despite the 21-point loss and being behind for the entirety of the second half, North Melbourne lost the tackle count 77-49.
"We're concerned about it, and we'll do a bit of work on it. It was sort of around the contest, we weren't getting through the contest at them. That was the difference between the two teams," Ratten said.
"If we fed back, they pressured us, and if they fed back, we just gave them too much time and space to use the footy. We need to do some work to get through the contest and at that player to lay that tackle. And maybe stick a few, too, I think we coughed it up a bit, too."
