NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott concedes opposition teams have developed a successful blueprint to shut down his team, but says he will stick with the game plan behind its round three win over reigning premier Geelong.
Scott said opposition teams had closely analysed North's impressive round two and three wins over Greater Western Sydney and the Cats, which were built on fast ball movement, in particularly through handball.
North's 1-3 record since those wins showed teams had found a way to short-circuit its game plan, Scott said.
"The template is pretty clear against us, really: place an enormous amount of pressure on us around the ball and we'll cough it and turn it over and get scored against," Scott said at Aegis Park on Wednesday.
"That's what sides have done to us really successfully. It's up to us to counter that now."
But Scott suggested North's response to such opposition tactics would involve a shift in mental approach, rather than a game plan overhaul.
"If you want to play finals footy, finals footy is based around pressure so you've got to be able to withstand that," Scott said.
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Scott reiterated the Kangaroos' "un-North-Melbourne-like" loss to the Western Bulldogs made him question his players' effort for the first time in his two-and-a-half-year coaching reign.
In addition to the club's three-hour game review on Monday, Scott said he could also call on another "weapon" to help turn North's fortunes around - selection changes.
"The biggest weapon a coach has in his armoury is selection. So that will be stringently looked at this week," he said.
Scott refused to speculate on the number of likely changes but said some could be expected. He nominated inside midfielder Levi Greenwood, key defender Nathan Grima and forward Ben Warren as being among the leading contenders for a senior recall.
Looking ahead to his team's clash with Port Adelaide on Saturday, Scott praised the "fantastic" effort the Power have displayed despite their 1-6 start to 2012.
Scott suggested Port would enter Saturday's game confident it could win, but said his players had been "shattered" by the Bulldogs loss and would respond against the Power.
Despite North's disappointing past month, Scott said he still had full faith in his leadership group of captain Andrew Swallow, co-vice-captains Jack Ziebell and Drew Petrie, Brent Harvey and Daniel Wells.
However, Scott conceded Ziebell will have to change the way he attacks the ball after he was penalised against the Bulldogs under the AFL's crackdown on players sliding into contests.
"I think Jack Ziebell personifies the way we want to go about it, although obviously his technique has to change a little bit at the contest," Scott said.
"It's difficult when you get a week's notice (from the AFL) because he's been doing that at the contest since he could walk so ... when you play on instinct it's a lot to change.
"But I think you'll find AFL players are pretty adaptable. When there's a rule change they adapt pretty quickly."
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Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter @AFL_Nick
