West Coast, Geelong, Western Bulldogs and Fremantle; it’s a first month of the season which will see North come up against some top-line midfielders, and an excellent test of where the Roos are at.
North will face those sides with some changes to its midfield. Some have been forced – like Ben Cunnington’s Round 1 suspension – while other Roos look to be spending more time through the centre.
Shaun Higgins and Shaun Atley appear to be the two highest profile North players to make the move, based on the JLT Series.
In Atley’s three matches, only 11 per cent of his disposals came in the defensive 50. That’s a steep drop on last season’s number of 37 per cent.
Meanwhile Higgins attended 24 centre bounces during North’s pre-season. That’s already more than his 17 last year.
According to stoppage coach Jarred Moore, more midfield time for the duo came about almost as a direct replacement for two former stars.
“We lost (Nick) Dal Santo and (Daniel) Wells from the midfield so we need a couple players to come in,” Moore explained.
“We’re looking at the young blokes to step up as well. (Ryan) Clarke, (Declan) Mountford, (Mitch) Hibberd, (Corey) Wagner; they’ll all be able to play a role in the midfield/wing region.”
While Clarke (six games) and Wagner (four games) had a brief taste of AFL level last season, the likes of Hibberd, Mountford and the 2016 draft class are yet to debut.
With that in mind, midfield coach Josh Drummond says expectations will be kept clear to the youngsters when they do play.
“It’s to play their role and to play to their strengths,” Drummond explained.
“Hopefully you see a few this year and they all have different things they bring to the table.
“There’s a clear way we want to play as a team and some non-negotiables we expect everyone to play.”
The buzz word, pressure, looms as one of those non-negotiables.
Trent Dumont’s impressive JLT Series was underpinned by his pressure acts and is a key reason why he’s all but locked his place in the 22 for North’s season-opener.
The battle to fill out the midfield – after the likes of Andrew Swallow, Jack Ziebell and Ben Cunnington – will be hotly contested, and Drummond expects plenty of players to earn their games.
“There’s a number of guys challenging who have yet to play a game of AFL footy and we expect them to challenge,” he said.
“We’re also not going to be handing games out, guys need to earn it.
“I’m sure opportunities will come to a number of them.”
With the exception of Ben Jacobs (foot injury), the midfield is largely fit and firing, which makes selection even tougher.
“Everyone’s looked pretty good on the track, done a lot of contested ball work and got a lot of run,” Moore said.
“There’s not too many that have missed out over the pre-season.”
The Eagles are the first top-line midfield on the fixture for the Roos.
While the absence of Nic Naitanui and Scott Lycett means they are slightly short in their ruck stocks, the midfield firepower more than makes up for it.
“(Sam) Mitchell on top of (Matt) Priddis and (Luke) Shuey and (Andrew) Gaff and (Chris) Masten, they’re certainly pretty well balanced in there,” Moore said.
“They were already going to be decent, so you throw Mitchell in there…
“Obviously they have to work on their synergy and working together and they looked like they did that in their pre-season games.”
