An injury-hit North Melbourne could have five players racing the clock for a critical Friday night clash against Hawthorn, with the Kangaroos licking their wounds after a 31-point loss to Geelong on Saturday night.
Brad Scott's men produced a gutsy effort to stay with the Cats until midway through the final term after losing skipper Andrew Swallow to concussion in the first quarter, while Ben Cunnington (corked quad) and Nick Dal Santo (adductor) also hobbled early.
Robin Nahas played on despite suffering a compound fracture of his finger before half-time, while Shaun Atley hurt his ankle in the dying stages, rubbing salt into the wounds.
"That will come out in the wash," Scott said post-match when asked to shed some light on the injury toll.
"Robin Nahas has got a compound fracture of his finger, which meant that it was a really tough one because we had to make a decision whether to leave him out there or not.
"In the end the doctors thought it was safe to continue, but we plugged one hole and something else happened.
"It was certainly one of those nights on the injury front, but I couldn’t say with any certainty whether that impacted the result.
"We still hung in there and Geelong played some really scintillating footy at various stages, so they certainly deserved their win regardless of our circumstances."
Swallow's concussion after his head hit the ground from a Lincoln McCarthy tackle was a body blow so early, with the skipper's work in the clinches sorely missed as the Cats dominated the centre square.
Although star ruckman Todd Goldstein won the hit-outs with 38 on his return from a knee complaint, opposite number Zac Smith helped superstar Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood dominate from the middle.
The champion onballers combined for 16 centre clearances – while the Roos had just eight in total – with Dangerfield producing the best individual performance of the season with a career-best 48 disposals, 13 marks, 11 inside 50s and two goals.
Missing specialist tagger Ben Jacobs, the Kangas didn't send a run-with player to Dangerfield, with Scott conceding the Roos didn't have the manpower to shutdown the superstar and try to win the match.
"We've got them (other taggers), we were just covering other holes tonight. In the end, it came down to a pretty simple analysis – do we just absolutely go and try and lock Dangerfield down and take out all our ability to run and score as well?" Scott said.
"Or do we try – as we did in the second quarter, even though he was really effective – do we try and go the other way a little bit.
"We just felt with the numbers the way they were, in terms of personnel, if we really rob Peter to pay Paul just to shut him down alone, then we were really going to struggle on the other side of the contest."
North (10-2) could relinquish top spot on the ladder for the first time since round four if the Sydney Swans defeat the Giants on Sunday.
With the Roos facing Adelaide and West Coast after the Hawks, some pundits are reserving judgement on North's premiership credentials, but Scott welcomes those doubts.
"It's really helped me throughout the year, in all seriousness, it's been great," he said.
"Because when you're 10-1, you have to try and keep your players realistic and keep their feet on the ground and you guys (the media) a doing a perfect job of that for me."
