NORTH Melbourne can cover Todd Goldstein's possible absence from Friday night's clash against Richmond, with ruck understudy Majak Daw ready to assume the No.1 role, leadership group member Jamie Macmillan says.
Goldstein is in doubt to take on the Tigers in the first night gameat Hobart's Blundstone Arena after copping a knock to the knee in North's loss to the Sydney Swans last Friday night.
The 2015 All Australian ruckman is the Roos' reigning best and fairest winner, while his ability to ruck nearly all game makes him the most valuable player in North's team structure.
Goldstein's durability – he has missed just six games over the past seven seasons – has meant the Roos have not had to call on their reserve ruckmen much recently.
But Macmillan told AFL.com.au Daw was ready to shoulder North's ruck duties against Richmond if Goldstein was ruled out.
"Goldy is obviously one of the premier ruckmen of the competition. No one is ever going to be able to come in and do what he can do," Macmillan said.
"But we've got Maj who is more than capable in the ruck and he can perform his role. We've even got young Preussy (rookie Braydon Preuss), whose work rate has been tremendous out on the track, just trying to get better and learn off Goldy.
"So if Goldy doesn't come up, I'm more than confident we'll have the right guys to replace him."
Daw is in his seventh season at Arden Street but has played just 17 senior games.
The 25-year-old's VFL form in recent seasons has been outstanding, but Goldstein's dominance in the ruck and the consistent form of Drew Petrie, Jarrad Waite and Ben Brown in attack has largely kept him out of North's side.
If Daw gets an opportunity against the Tigers, Macmillan is confident he is better placed to grasp it than he was when given extended senior runs in 2013 and 2014.
"I think over the first four or five years of his career he thought he needed to develop and, although he was telling himself he wanted to play AFL, he probably didn't see himself belonging at that level," Macmillan said.
"Just having a chat to him now and seeing the way that he plays, you can see he really believes that he belongs. I think he now sees himself as an AFL player and has the confidence that he can perform his role."
North has had the wood on Richmond in recent times, winning six of their past seven matches, including last year's first elimination final.
The Tigers' sole win in that stretch came in round 23 last year, when North rested nine senior players ahead of the finals.
Macmillan could not explain North's good run against Richmond, but was in no doubt about one thing – the Tigers would be hell-bent on avenging their 17-point elimination final loss on Friday night.
"We lost the (2014) preliminary final to the Sydney Swans and when we played them up there last year (in the first semi-final) we were really keen on atoning for that loss," Macmillan said.
"So I've got no doubt last year's final will still be stinging for the Tigers and they'll come out hard.
"We'll have to be on our game."
Fewer than 1000 general admission tickets are still available for the North-Richmond game, which starts at 7.50pm. To purchase, go to afl.com.au/tickets.
