NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott believes the Roos' 53-point loss to Fremantle on Sunday could prove a defining moment for his evolving player group.
Scott was disappointed his players had failed to cope with the finals-like pressure Freo had thrown at them at Etihad Stadium. He also suggested they may have subconsciously let down their guards down after Carlton's loss to Gold Coast on Saturday officially confirmed their finals spot.
But Scott was adamant North would learn from the loss, and was grateful it had come in round 22 and not week one of the finals.
"You look at the defining moments we've had over the last couple of years, most of them haven't come from victories," Scott said on Sunday evening.
"Most people think that the terrific wins we've had have been the new dawn or the defining moments. Our defining moments have been losses and we've learnt a hell of a lot from those losses.
"We learnt a hell of a lot today from a side that was harder than us, outworked us and play to a terrifically disciplined game style.
"Now we'll have a really close look at it and it's going to be really clear to the players where we let ourselves down."
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Scott said ruckman Todd Goldstein, who had just two possessions and eight hit-outs against Fremantle giant Aaron Sandilands (15 and 49) had come down with gastro/food poisoning in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Although Goldstein passed himself fit to play, Scott said North only had one emergency who didn't play in the VFL on Saturday, half-back Will Sierakowski.
Scott said North's lack of a suitable replacement for Goldstein was a timely reminder it needed to get game time into its fringe players next round against Greater Western Sydney.
"The temptation more than resting players [against GWS] is to look at players who have been on the cusp of selection for a long period of time," Scott said.
"Todd Goldstein … would obviously be disappointed with his performance because I made it clear to him if he puts his hand up to play he's got to play, there's no excuses.
"But the concern was [with] the vagaries of the system we have is that both of our VFL teams played yesterday. We carried over an emergency. We have to roll the dice and pick someone and it was Will Sierakowski who doesn't replace Todd Goldstein, so we were left in a really tough spot there.
"So the concern is we have to get some AFL football into some players who we may need over the next couple of weeks. That will be more of a priority rather than resting players."
The loss saw North tumble from sixth on the ladder to eighth, with Geelong (sixth) now a game and 4.4 percentage points clear and Fremantle (seventh) just 0.8 per cent ahead.
Next rounds' Geelong-Sydney Swans (Skilled Stadium), Fremantle-Melbourne (Patersons Stadium) and North-GWS games (Skoda Stadium) will shape positions six to eight on the ladder.
At best, North can climb to sixth. At worst, it will remain eighth, when on current ladder positions it would play Collingwood.
But Scott said he was not focusing on such finals permutations, knowing that any final would be a stern test.
Scott said he expected Daniel Wells (calf) and Nathan Grima (hamstring) to be fit to play against GWS.
Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
