A lot has changed since North Melbourne lost to the Bulldogs by 18-points in Round 7, but coach Brad Scott says the Roos are still wary of their opponent’s talent, especially in the midfield.
"We got comprehensively beaten around the ball and around the contest. That's still a strength of the Bulldogs," Scott said at Aegis Park on Friday.
"They've got some good players in there who can win the ball so we'll have to be all over that and make sure our ball winners get to the ball first.
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"Matty Boyd ran around and had 44 possessions and Tory Dickson slipped under our guard and kicked four so I suppose it's once bitten, twice shy a little bit.”
North will be missing the likes of Jack Ziebell and Lindsay Thomas on Saturday at Etihad Stadium, but Scott is confident his side’s style of play and newfound confidence will hold it in good stead this time around.
"We're a very different team from the last game we played (against the Bulldogs) but if anything it has sharpened our focus on what they're very good at.
"The combination of Boyd and Griffen really got on top of our guys. We'll tighten that up.
"(But) we don't want to go away too much from the way we've been playing because it has been pretty successful for us over the last couple of months."
Cruize Garlett comes in for the suspended Thomas while the Dogs have named Justin Sherman, Zeph Skinner, Dylan Addison and debutant Jason Johannisen to replace Luke Dahlhaus (soreness), Lindsay Gilbee (soreness), Daniel Cross (shoulder) and Liam Jones (omitted).
