Midfield coach Leigh Tudor admits North must “get back to the basics” and says the Brisbane Lions are a dangerous opposition even without its captain Tom Rockliff.

The Roos were soundly beaten in their season-opening clash against Adelaide by 77 points and have a chance to rectify their performance when they take on the Lions at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Tudor said North will be out to win the one-on-one contests and return to an aggressive style of football.

“They’re (the players) just keen to get back to the basics this week and have a crack up against a side that’s got a fairly different midfield to the last time we played them,” Tudor told NMFC.com.au on Thursday.

“They’ll have a real big focus this week on winning their own ball and getting the basic decisions right – win the ball or put pressure on them when they’ve got the ball.

“There were too many patches last week where (we) just didn’t have pressure on the Crows’ midfielders.”

The last time both teams met in round 15 last season, the Lions held on to claim a four-point victory in wet conditions at the Gabba.

In that encounter, on-ballers Pearce Hanley and Rockliff were among the game’s leading possession-getters, collecting 34 and 28 disposals respectively.

But both players will miss this weekend’s game due to injury.

Hanley has been sidelined until mid-season after undergoing hip surgery in February, while Rockliff was subbed out of his side’s 12-point loss to Collingwood on Saturday night with broken ribs and a punctured lung.

With Rockliff expected to miss up to six weeks, Daniel Rich will lead his side out against the Roos and will alternate captaincy duties with fellow vice-skipper Dayne Zorko.

Tudor said both midfielders pose a threat to the Roos even in the absence of the injured Rockliff.

“Rich is a quality player, he’s a fantastic ball user, he can win his own ball and he can go to half-back as well and play a bit on the wing,” he said.

“You could see last week, if you’re anywhere near 50, they handball to him and he just pops it through from 55m.

“Zorko is one of those players that reads the game really well and once he gets the ball, he makes good decisions.

“He’s another one that we need to really keep an eye on because he can break games open.”

Also high on North’s agenda is how to limit experienced recruits Mitch Robinson, Allen Christensen and Dayne Beams.

Although the Roos were beaten in the contested ball count (142-115) against the Crows, the inside 50 tally (63-47) was another area of concern.

Tudor said the same can’t happen against the Lions.

“They’ve got a lot of small forwards that create a lot of headaches so we need to make sure we put as much pressure on their ball carriers in the midfield as we can,” he said.

“Like last week (against Adelaide), if teams just have easy entries (inside 50), we make it very hard for the defenders so we need to make sure that we don’t give Brisbane easy quality entries.”

Tudor said the players have “learned their lessons” after a disappointing loss and have shown promising signs on the training track.

“The positive out of it all is we get to have a game on Sunday and that’s what the boys are really looking forward to,” he said.

“I don’t think it matters who we play this week; we’ll be looking to see the signs early from our midfield group that they’re ready for the contest.

“They trained really well today (Thursday) and hopefully we see some actions on the weekend.”