The Kangaroos will head to Blundstone Arena for a second crack at the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday, with hopes of snapping their extensive losing streak.
A second-quarter lapse against the Tigers last weekend saw North Melbourne concede six straight goals before falling by 29 points at the MCG.
Alastair Clarkson's side will host Suns who will also be looking to cap their season off on a positive note after missing out on finals.
The opposition
Winless in its last three outings, the Suns – like North Melbourne – will want to send their 2023 campaign off with a victory.
Their extra motivation could come through the recent acquisition of three-time premiership coach Damien Hardwick, who will lead the club in 2024 and beyond after 14 years at Richmond.
He would have liked what he saw in the opening term at Heritage Bank Stadium against the Blues last week, as the electric Suns linked up exceptionally to take a 6.5 (41) to 1.2 (8) advantage into the first break. Things fell apart after that though, and despite showing some grit late, Carlton managed to snatch the four points.
Sam Flanders has proven to be a quality ball-winner since returning to the Gold Coast line-up in Round 15 and could warrant some attention from a Kangaroos perspective, while defender Charlie Ballard is an ever-present intercepting threat.
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BUY NOWThe team
Tall defender Kallan Dawson has gotten the call to play his first game of the season. He featured in the final four games of 2022, but this represents his first opportunity since.
Joining him is fellow defender Miller Bergman for his first game since Round 16, and mid-forward Charlie Lazzaro who shone in the VFL win last weekend.
Jack Ziebell (retired), Luke McDonald (injured), Dan Howe (omitted), and Blake Drury (omitted) come out of the side, with Saturday's tactical substitute to be either Howe, Drury, Aiden Bonar or Lachie Young.
PREDICT AND WIN
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WHO MAKES IT?What the coaches have said
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson on Thursday: "(The players are) competitive beasts and so am I. We want to win, so we'll be putting the best team out there that we can. We went through some vision about how we can defend the ground better, we didn't do it as well as we'd liked against Richmond ... so we're just continuing to work on our game."
Gold Coast interim coach Steven King on Wednesday: "Any time you finish the season, obviously you want to win the premiership, but when you don’t you want to go out on a high and you don’t want to put in a poor performance because that lingers for a long time. We're playing some pretty good footy at the moment and I want us to get better this week."
Last time we met
North Melbourne celebrated club champ Todd Goldstein last time out against the Suns, with the smooth-moving ruck bringing up 300 AFL appearances as a Kangaroo.
Gold Coast spoiled the party at Heritage Bank Stadium though, claiming a 43-point Round 6 win.
Recently retired midfielder Ben Cunnington was arguably best-on-ground for the visitors with 27 disposals and eight clearances to his name at the final siren, while Goldstein himself tallied 33 hitouts and 14 touches working against Suns co-captain Jarrod Witts.
Gold Coast forward Ben King proved difficult to contain booting five goals, while Lachie Weller and Noah Anderson collected 28 disposals each with the latter extracting the ball from stoppages eight times.
