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NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott has no fears his team will suffer a letdown this round after its breakthrough win against Geelong last Sunday.
Scott says his team's awareness had "a long way to go" to catch the competition's best teams and its respect for its opponents this Sunday, the Sydney Swans, would safeguard against any lapse in intensity.
"We're not in a position to allow that to happen," Scott said at Aegis Park on Thursday.
"Mentally our players still feel like they've got a long way to go and they've still got a fair bit to prove to the competition. I mean we were the first to admit that we got Geelong at a good time and things went well for us on the day."
Scott said playing the Swans at their home ground, the SCG, was one of the game's toughest away assignments.
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But he could not hide his excitement that North's task would be made easier by Adam Goodes' unavailability through suspension.
"I'm sure Adam Goodes checks the fixture every year to check when they play North Melbourne because if he's out of form, we play him back into form, and if he's in great form we put him into better form," Scott said, breaking into a smile.
Scott said it would be "very difficult" to make changes to the team that played so well against the Cats, but suggested North's healthy list meant in-form players could be dropped as the club adopted a "horses for courses policy".
"So with that will come some selection surprises at times," he said.
But Scott said North would not alter its game plan significantly to suit the shorter, wider dimensions of the SCG. However, he said inside midfielders Cruize Garlett, who had 32 possessions for North Ballarat in the VFL last Saturday, and Levi Greenwood, who Scott said was "perfectly suited to the SCG", were pressing for selection.
Presumably, Garlett and Greenwood's cases will be helped by the expected wet conditions in Sydney on Sunday and Scott's own expectation that the game is "certainly going to be an in-tight contested [match]".
Scott also said he had no issues with his twin brother and Geelong coach Chris' comments in The Age on Thursday that North was following "a recipe for disaster" if it copied the Cats' game plan of previous seasons.
Scott said his earlier comments that North had unashamedly copied parts of the Cats' game plan had been taken in "isolation".
"It would be folly of me to try and replicate a game style that was played three, four, five years ago. The game changes so rapidly," Scott said.
"What we're trying to do as a coaching staff is be innovative, stay ahead of the curve, and play a style of footy that we think is going to be successful in the future, not one that worked in the past."
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Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter @AFL_Nick
