DANNY Daly is central to North Melbourne's knowledge of its opponents, briefing his fellow coaches and players in the lead-up to each game.

This week North (4-7) travels to Adelaide to play the Crows (6-5) at AAMI Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

You haven't played Adelaide since round seven last year. How does that affect your planning?
It hasn't really affected it that much. I've seen a fair bit of Adelaide and we've got a lot of players who haven't really played against Adelaide before. It's a whole new outlook for us. In the past we've come up with some weird and wonderful plans, which haven't worked because we haven't beaten them for about five years. We're starting afresh.

As a group and despite the changes you've made to the side, will you still refer to what was a pretty disappointing effort at AAMI Stadium last year?
Yeah. I've already had my opposition meeting with the boys and we touched on that and showed a few edits in that game of areas which cost us. We did a bit of reflection on last year for about five minutes and then moved forward to Sunday arvo.

What about it being your first road trip this season?
It's been mentioned. This is the first of about six in the last 11 weeks. It's a good opportunity for the guys to spend a bit of time together. We generally travel pretty well, albeit we haven't beaten Adelaide at AAMI. But we've had success against Port Adelaide over there, so that's a positive we're using.

Kurt Tippett has emerged as their main target after last week's effort against Essendon. Will that job fall to Josh Gibson or Scott Thompson or will you have to go taller?
We haven't finalised the team but you'd look at Scott Thompson. He's done the job on those key forwards right throughout the year. (Justin) Koschitzke got him late in the game last week but we were out on our legs. He kicked three goals late but up till then Scott had done pretty well. Obviously young (Taylor) Walker the week before kicked five so we'll probably need Nathan (Grima) or Spud (Michael Firrito) or one of our taller blokes to watch him. Then you've got (Jason) Porplyzia who's been averaging his three or four a night. They've got a good combination down there so we need to get our match-ups right.

Adelaide couldn't buy a win at AAMI until they smacked Carlton in round nine. Granted, those losses came against likely top-four sides but do you see any vulnerability there at all?
Absolutely. I was over there watching the Port game when Port Adelaide beat them and when St Kilda beat them in round two. As you said, they've been against good sides but I think it's more about some little things you can get out of those games which makes them a bit vulnerable. They thumped Carlton and then Hawthorn two weeks ago so they're in pretty good nick. But I think if we can just get the right mix in terms of our strategies and tactics against them [it would help].

What did you make of Adelaide's win over Essendon last week? Obviously you had some success against the Bombers in round four.
Dean (Laidley) and I went along to have a look at that game. It was a good game of footy – I've never seen a game like that where there have been so many goals and no points kicked. It was an attacking game from both sides. In our game we were able to shut down a lot of their ability to win the footy from the opposition and then create goals from it. If we can hold firm in that area and not give them too many opportunities to score from our turnovers and try to make it a physical game, we might be able to bring them back into the caves a bit and scrounge a win.

This season North has tried to exploit other sides in the ruck division with the support that Hamish McIntosh gets from Todd Goldstein, Drew Petrie and even David Hale. It's a different situation with Brad Moran, Ivan Maric and Tippett really combining to expose Patrick Ryder last week. Hamish will need that support again.
Spot on, they use the three of them right throughout a game. They use one in the forward line and one sits behind the footy so they put a lot of pressure on the opposition ruckman. They've got to work twice as hard because they're up against three or four ruckmen at times – even Walker takes the ruck occasionally. But I think the challenge is there for H. Young Brad Moran's come out and had a few words to say about getting back at Hamish this week so I think H is pretty pumped. They can throw what they want at Hamish but I think he'll be ready to fire it back.

The Crows have also found a string of ball-winners on top of their usuals with Bernie Vince, Chris Knights and David Mackay. How do you assess the match-ups for Brady Rawlings and Sam Power?
Both those boys might get guys like Mackay, Vince and (Andrew) McLeod, who spends time at half-back but comes from half-forward. (Scott) Thompson and (Tyson) Edwards are in pretty good nick around the footy so I daresay Brady will get one of those in-and-under players that he's very good at running with. With Sam, we'll just have to weigh up the best possible match-up for him with the other two or three. Where McLeod plays will obviously have a big bearing on who we play on him. If he's in the midfield, obviously Brady's had the job on him in the past and done reasonably well.

You'd expect Nathan Bock to look for Drew straight up.
Absolutely. Bock will probably go to Drewy, (Ben) Rutten will take Haley and young (Andy) Otten, who's played all games, he'll probably take the third tall in Aaron (Edwards) or if CJ (Corey Jones) plays. Then you've got Johncock, Reilly and van Berlo who will probably take the smalls.

How much goes into milestones in your opinion? Obviously Simmo reaches 300 this week. Edwards did the same for Adelaide against Essendon last week.
Simmo's been a terrific ambassador for the club and the third player in our history to play 300. He's just a terrific bloke. We made a big deal of it early in the week but we haven't discussed it much further. As the week gets on and the day comes, I'm sure there'll be a lot made of it. I don't think they'll need much pumping up for Simmo's 300th. Like Glenn Archer against the Doggies a few years ago, the boys will set their sights to make sure they can come home for a victory.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.