While the trip to Perth is considered the toughest in the game, Scott and his team will be making no excuses come the first bounce on Friday night
“We’re here with a job to do. It’s a critical game for us,” he said of the clash against the Eagles.
“We’re really well placed to take West Coast on, but it’s a massive challenge over here.
“The shorter week is no issue for us and there are certainly no excuses there. West Coast has had two six-day breaks in a row, and they came back from Queensland last week, so our preparation in terms of travel and break is better than West Coast’s. That’s no concern for us.”
Eight months have passed since the Kangaroos were outworked, outmuscled and ultimately outplayed in a final most fans would rather forget, but Scott will look at this week as a test of his players’ improvement.
“It’s basically eight or nine games ago that we played here, and we played poorly. We’ll get a good measure of how far we’ve come, and how much we’ve bridged that gap.
“When you’ve got a competitive group, I don’t even need to make mention of that (last time).
“They’ll know, and they know they’ve got something to prove individually, and we definitely know we’ve got something to prove as a collective.
“If you make too much of it, you take your eye off what’s important, but there’s no doubt that this game has significance because of past history.”
Despite losing its last three games against West Coast at the venue, Scott says North won’t be intimidated by a boisterous crowd.
“I don’t get too concerned about playing interstate or playing good opposition away. If you want to be a good team you’ve got to take on any opposition, anytime, anywhere.
“I played at an ‘interstate’ club for over a decade and we had a good record everywhere. The reason for that was we were a good team.
Optimism aside, the task against the Eagles won’t be an easy one, particularly after a slow start to the season by their standards.
“They are a good side because they’ve got quality players at both ends and a quality midfield as well. That’s what we’re building towards.”
Much of the battle will be decided in the team’s attacking halves, an area North has excelled in, in recent weeks.
“They counter what we are pretty good at. Over probably a 12 month period we’ve had some genuine firepower, and now with Majak (Daw) and Aaron Black, we’ve got firepower in terms of personnel, but it’s a different type of firepower.
“With Darren (Glass) and Will Schofield, Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown, they cover that pretty well.
“Our forwards don’t expect to get it lace out every week. They’ve got to win the ball in a genuine contest and that’s definitely what we’ll have in our front half against West Coast.”
The Eagles’ front six is equally as impressive, with North forced to recall key-defender Nathan Grima for additional cover.
“This year at times they’ve played four genuine talls, particularly with Naitanui coming back, but with Callum Sinclair as well. It can be any mix of two rucks and (Josh) Kennedy and (Jack) Darling. Losing Quinten Lynch hasn’t really affected them that much and they can still go with that same structure.”
