North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson, who saw his side give up a five-goal lead in last week's loss to West Coast, is expecting to face the "Essendon of old" at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.

"Anyone who has got their backs to the wall are usually (fired up). We're expecting Essendon's best," Clarkson said.

"Even in passages of play over the last two rounds, they've played against two pretty good opponents in Hawthorn jumping on the rebound, and so were Port Adelaide.

"They still played some good patches of footy and we can see through the course of those games that the Essendon best will trouble anyone."

North Melbourne welcomes back George Wardlaw for his first game of the season after hamstring issues.

Callum Coleman-Jones and Aidan Corr also return, with Jack Darling and Jacob Konstanty omitted. Griffin Logue (hamstring) is unavailable.

"He's had a really good training block," Clarkson said of Wardlaw.

"Hopefully he provides a spark for us, but he'll be on limited game time.

"The fifth interchange just gives you a bit more affordability to manage the time load of some of your players."