DANNY Daly is central to North Melbourne's knowledge of its opponents, briefing his fellow coaches and players in the lead-up to each game.

This week North (4-13-1) hosts Melbourne (3-15) at Docklands on Sunday.

I don't think I've ever seen an injury list quite like Melbourne's.
I've got it right in front of me. There are 19 there. They've got a couple back obviously in (Brent) Moloney and (Cale) Morton but I still think that even Morton is a bit suspect this week.

Despite their absentees, they've still shown a bit of ticker in recent weeks. They were only beaten after the siren last round.
I've basically done my research on their last seven games and they've won two of them. They should have won last week and they've been pretty competitive in the other games. If you actually go on form line, they're ahead of us at the minute.

It's been such a drought since your last win. How much have you set yourselves to beat these guys?
In the past six weeks it's been about wanting to win games, but we've focused more on how we want to go about it and our structure and, as a result, have been hoping to win. This week the focus has been that we have to win. It's a game we must win against Melbourne. We can't take them too lightly despite what you might read in the papers. We've been mindful that the players don't read that or take too much on board. It's going to be a tough game.

And the boys must be feeling pretty good with a nine-day break.
In hindsight, it's a good thing with the emotion of going down to the Blues in Simmo's last game. It gave everyone an opportunity to have a day or two away over the weekend and come back on Monday refreshed to hit the track hard for this week.

It's probably helped Levi Greenwood and Nathan Grima more than anyone.
They've both come through training okay but if it had have been a six-day break, they both would have missed out this week. Narni's corkie just above his knee was giving him a bit of trouble early in the week but he trained strongly yesterday (Thursday). Levi did as well. They've been able to recover pretty well and get some treatment and are both 100 per cent.

Is this the week that Aaron Edwards finally comes back in? Lachie Hansen struggled a bit in attack against the Blues.
Aaron's form over the last three weeks has been very good in the VFL. He's right in the mix. We have our final training session tomorrow (Saturday) morning and I think Crock (Darren Crocker) is still weighing up which of the two to play. I think Aaron deserves his chance but whether he wants to give Lachie another chance down there will be known this afternoon.

What about Ed Lower? It's been a really trying season for him.
It has. He's another one who had a knee injury and an operation and has had three games back in the VFL now. He's getting better with each game but he's probably still one match away from returning to senior level. He played about 70 per cent last week and got a fair bit of the footy early, but faded out of the game. He's just got to get a consistent game under his belt this week, play 80 or 85 per cent and he'll be right in the mix for next week.

I see Melbourne has named Colin Sylvia. He's probably had a better year than most of their guys. Who would that job most likely fall to?
He's been playing a lot more in the midfield and across half-forward. At half-forward you'd find (Michael) Firrito would probably take him. In the midfield, we might just go head-to-head with him with Andrew Swallow or Daniel Harris and just be aware of his ability to run forward and hurt us on the scoreboard. We might even just have one of our defenders hold him and if he wants to burst forward, they'll be responsible for him. We still want to win the footy inside so we won't be tagging him in the midfield.

Brady was terrific on Eddie Betts last week. The Dees don't have a similar forward. Does that mean a midfield return for him?
He'll play more across half-back and take whoever comes down there, whether it's (Brent) Moloney or (Aaron) Davey. If Davey plays on the wing, you'll find Brady will push up to the wing and try to curb his influence around the contests.

What input has Adam Simpson had around the place this week?
He hasn't been around too much. After his injury last week, he wasn't able to walk for a few days. His calf's pretty bad. He's ripped the hell out of it. He popped in on Thursday and caught up with the boys and he's done a little bit of work with Liam Anthony and Jack Ziebell this week. He's taking them to the footy tonight (Friday) to have a look at some midfield stuff. He'll probably be back on board next week full-time and do a bit of work with me on the opposition and on us, and spend some time with the development coaches.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.