Normally when North Melbourne plays West Coast, the threat of Nic Naitanui in the ruck would take up much of the planning.

However, this Sunday the Kangaroos will travel to Domain Stadium and face an Eagles side looking for its best ruck combination in the injury-enforced absence of Naitanui.

The ruckman has missed the last two games after succumbing to persistent Achilles soreness, and in those matches the Eagles have tried two different setups.

In Round 13 they faced Brisbane at the Gabba with Jonathan Giles as the lead ruckman in his club debut.

Giles, more of a traditional ruckman in terms of build, was out-pointed comfortably in the hit-outs by Stefan Martin – 51 to 18.

Fraser McInnes was the second ruckman on the day – neither was in the side for the Eagles’ next outing against Essendon in Round 15.

Scott Lycett was preferred in the ruck, taking the majority of the workload against Matthew Leuenberger. Again it was the opposition who came out on top, the Bombers winning the overall hit-out count 53-42 and translating that into a 44-38 clearance edge.

For the Eagles, it was Mitch Brown who came into the side to pinch hit in the ruck against the Bombers, a departure from his customary key defensive position. His six hit-outs were the only ones of his entire 91-game career to date.

What it indicates is that North will have to deal with an unpredictable West Coast stoppage setup.

In the past when opposition teams have been missing ruckmen against the Kangaroos, they’ve often elected to almost concede the hit-out to Todd Goldstein and back their midfielders in at ground level.

Last season’s match against the Western Bulldogs was a prime example of this. On that afternoon Goldstein had 54 hit-outs compared to only 20 for Jordan Roughead, but the Bulldogs comfortably won the clearance count on the back of Marcus Bontempelli, Mitch Wallis and co.

Considering the skills of Matt Priddis, Luke Shuey and the rest of West Coast’s midfield, it’s a tactic which could be employed by Eagles’ coach Adam Simpson.

Down forward Josh Kennedy has continued to be one of the form key-forwards in the competition. His 49 goals rank second in the AFL, behind only Lance Franklin’s 52.

North has had some relative success keeping Kennedy under wraps in the past; the Eagle has kicked seven goals in his last four matches against the Roos. Robbie Tarrant will likely get the first crack at the matchup.

With eight players having kicked double figure goals in 2016, there are multiple threats for the North defensive group to consider.