It’ll be a clash of styles at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, and North’s tall timber up forward will be key factors in deciding the result according to Luke Beveridge.

The Dogs' coach will be using the clubs' last meeting as a reference point for his planning.

“They took a lot of marks, contested marks against us last time,” he told the media on Tuesday afternoon.

“We aim to be a little bit better in defending those long balls.”

Ben Brown, Drew Petrie and Jarrad Waite combined for 23 marks in Round 22 last season, with the latter two kicking three goals each.

“We managed to defend pretty well in defensive 50 last time, it was just sort of up between the arcs where they got us (in the air),” said Beveridge.

“We’re looking for a more even defensive effort in the air across the whole ground this time.

“They are significant threats those big boys, but we’ll back our crew to get it done.”

Although the build for the match will largely be centred around what’s expected to be a fast, entertaining encounter, that hasn’t entered Beveridge’s thoughts.

“As coaches we don’t pay a hell of a lot of attention to the spectacle per se.

“It’s important for our season that we play really well against North. It’s more for our journey and our momentum, we want to keep it going.

“These early wins are setting clubs up and we want to be one of those. It’s more in the scheme of things that it’s important, rather than the spectacle.”