NORTH Melbourne will resist the temptation to rest players ahead of the finals against Greater Western Sydney this Saturday, coach Brad Scott says.
Eight North players have played every game this season, including former skipper Brent Harvey, 34, co-vice-captain Drew Petrie, 29, defender Michael Firrito, 28, and second-year players Shaun Atley and Kieran Harper.
Scott had foreshadowed after last Sunday's 53-point loss to Fremantle that North might take the opportunity against the Giants to give some AFL game time to its in-form VFL players.
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But Scott said on Wednesday that North would field a full-strength team against GWS and focus on rectifying the mistakes that plagued its performance against Freo before the finals.
"Our attitude for this game will be we learnt some valuable lessons last week against Fremantle, some things we've got to fix up," Scott said at Aegis Park.
"We're fortunate we've got another week before we go into the finals to get those things right. I doubt we'll make any changes, and if we do they'll be minimal changes.
"We'll give the side another chance to go out and fix a few of the things we need to fix and get some real momentum going into the finals series.
"We're not in a position where we can look at resting players."
Scott reiterated North had toyed with the possibility of bringing in in-form fringe players such as Cameron Pedersen, Will Sierakowski, Aaron Mullett and Cameron Delaney, but had decided against it.
"There was a school of thought that we needed to get some AFL game time into players who have been playing VFL for a long time but were worthy of a spot in the AFL team," Scott said.
"But after match committee and discussing with some of the coaches we feel our best approach is to play our best team, try and play our best footy and go into a knockout finals series in good shape."
Scott said midfielder Daniel Wells (calf) and key defender Nathan Grima (hamstring) could return from injury against the Giants, but no decision would be made until later this week.
"They both have made really rapid progression over the last three days, so ideally we'd like them to play. We won't be holding them back if they're 100 per cent right to go," Scott said.
"But we'd be silly to take a risk if we weren't convinced they had enough training under their belt."
Scott also expected Todd Goldstein to play against the Giants, saying the Roos ruckman had recovered well from the gastro that he suffered last Sunday before the Freo loss.
With just 0.78 of a percentage point separating eight-placed North from seventh-placed Fremantle, and Freo playing 16th-placed Melbourne at Patersons Stadium this round, percentage is likely to determine both teams' final positions in the eight and elimination final opponents.
Among the many possible permutations, North will play West Coast in an elimination final at Patersons Stadium if the Roos can't bridge Freo's percentage lead and remain in eighth and the Eagles lose to Hawthorn at the MCG and slip to fifth.
However, Scott says North won't adopt the "poor mindset" of worrying about such finals scenarios, knowing it is guaranteed a tough opponent, be it West Coast in Perth, or Geelong or Collingwood at the MCG.
Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
