North Melbourne returns to its home away from home in Hobart on Sunday with growing confidence, after falling agonisingly short of victory in two of the past three weeks.

Last week's six-point loss to Essendon followed Round 10's heartbreaker against Sydney, and interim coach Brett Ratten's men now head to Blundstone Arena with renewed hunger to land their next win.

The Kangaroos face a GWS Giants side still stinging from its own rollercoaster defeat in Round 12, by six points to Richmond.

The opposition

The Giants head to Hobart sitting in 15th place on the AFL ladder, but they have claimed some serious scalps under first-year coach Adam Kingsley.

Lead goalscorer Toby Greene gave them a one-point win against crosstown rival Sydney in Round 7, and in Round 11 they rolled Geelong in Geelong, completing a double over the previous season's grand finalists. Their loss against Richmond in Round 12 leaves them with a 4-8 record overall.

The Giants will travel to Hobart without hamstrung small forward Brent Daniels, but are expected to regain defender Nick Haynes, who has missed two matches following a concussion. Star Josh Kelly remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Running hot

Fresh off a career-best 29 touches in Round 11's loss against ladder leader Collingwood, Will Phillips backed up with another assured performance against Essendon.

Playing in the heart of the Kangaroos' undermanned midfield, Phillips won a game-high 14 contested possessions. He finished with 27 disposals in total, eight clearances and six tackles in a performance that earned him three coaches' votes.

Having missed all of last season following a second bout of glandular fever, the former No.3 draft pick is growing in confidence and will be out to continue his encouraging form against the Giants.

What the coaches have said

North Melbourne interim senior coach Brett Ratten pre-game v GWS: "Our depth in the midfield is growing. Our self-belief is growing. The reality is we've been competitive and we like the performances [we've seen in recent weeks], but we haven't won, and that's what we're striving for. We like the way we're trending but we'd like the four points as well."

GWS Giants senior coach Adam Kingsley post-game v Richmond: "We put ourselves in a position to win the game, and didn't capitalise on the opportunities we had. We allowed them to score too freely. The reality is they had 47 entries (inside 50) and scored 30 times, and that's just far too much. We had the game how we wanted it to look. We didn't defend their entries anywhere near to the level."

Last time we met

North Melbourne 7.11 (53) def by GWS Giants 15.12 (102) at Marvel Stadium

Stephen Coniglio enjoyed a day out at Marvel Stadium as the Giants won by 49 points in the same round last season.

Coniglio kicked three goals and had 34 disposals in a dominating role alongside Harry Himmelberg, who won 37 touches playing out of defence. 

Midfielders Luke Davies-Uniacke (33 disposals) and Jy Simpkin (32) fought hard but the damage was done early as the Kangaroos conceded the game's first seven goals. By half-time the margin was 47 points and the game was gone.