North Melbourne coach Brad Scott expects his players to uphold the club's proud history of responding to disappointing results in the wake of last week's 82-point annihilation to Fremantle.
A match that seemed winnable on paper for the retooled Roos instead ended up resulting in a disastrous start to the season and a deflated flight home to Melbourne.
Scott admits now they sent the "wrong" team to Perth, although he declined to discuss the reasons for the surprise omission of midfielder Paul Ahern, who amassed 21 disposals and three goals in JLT2.
There will be at least one change, with hard-luck defender Ed Vickers-Willis (ACL in left knee) likely to miss the rest of the season and veteran Scott Thompson now available after suspension.
However, Scott hinted he might not make mass changes at the selection table ahead of Sunday's clash with first-up winner Brisbane at Marvel Stadium.
"We're all a bit sore and sorry coming back from Perth but since we've arrived back at Arden St we're rejuvenated and looking forward to the challenge of responding to what was a really poor game for us," he told reporters.
"When you get beaten by that margin, there's always the potential for changes. We've certainly got one forced, with Vickers-Willis going out, but we're still wrestling with the situation.
"There are probably two ways we can go. We can make significant changes or we can basically put it on the 21 players (not counting Vickers-Willis) to respond.
"I think they're both options available to us at the moment and we'll have to make a decision on that tonight, as to which way we go."
The likes of Jy Simpkin, Mason Wood and Luke McDonald appear outwardly the players under most pressure, but Scott and the North match committee demonstrated last year, in particular, they preferred to give second chances.
Top-10 draftee Tarryn Thomas was a senior emergency against the Dockers and impressed in the VFL, so could give the Kangaroos two debutants in as many weeks behind NAB AFL Rising Star nominee Bailey Scott.
North has a strong recent record against the Lions, winning the past six matches between the sides, as well as not losing to the visitors for a seven-match stretch at Marvel Stadium since 2009.
Brisbane, one of the competition's most-hyped sides in the pre-season, is a different proposition these days and fresh from upsetting reigning premier West Coast.
"They're a really good, developing side and they've been developing for a long time, so they're going to give a lot of teams a lot of trouble this year, particularly at the Gabba," Scott said.
"But we've got to uphold our end of the bargain and make sure we play the way we expect to play and at the weekend we didn't look like the side we've developed over the last 18 months.
"We'll go in confident that we play a system that's capable of competing with anyone and it's been good enough against Brisbane in the recent past but they're a better team than that now, so we'll have to go up a notch."
