Todd Goldstein wants to forget North’s last encounter with Essendon, but knows it can also serve a purpose heading into the Elimination Final on Saturday Night.

The Roos were outworked, outplayed and outgunned by the Bombers way back in March during the season opener and the ruckman knows things will be much different this time around.

“I really hope we’re a lot different, we can’t do much worse…” he told 1116SEN.

“We’ve changed the way we play a lot since then, we’re a completely different side. We really allowed them to play the way they wanted to and the way they play their best footy and we really didn’t go about to try and stop it at all.”

If Round 1 was a reminder of how not to play against Essendon, then North’s last finals appearance will also hold the group in good stead. A 96-point thrashing by the Eagles still sits uncomfortably with those who were there.

“We all have a little taste of it now and we’re starting to understand what’s required to go one better this time,” Goldstein said.

The Roos’ side has changed dramatically since and Goldstein believes the workload is more evenly spread among the players making the team a much more dangerous and unpredictable outfit.

“We’re not reliant on the same blokes week in, week out. We know if someone needs to step up, it might be Nick Dal Santo, it might be Levi Greenwood, it might be Sam Gibson…We’re getting a vast (amount) of players that are going to step up for us and the amount of confidence (we get) when it gets tough, the whole group’s going to respond, not just Boomer (Brent Harvey), not just Drewy (Drew Petrie), not just Andrew Swallow.”

The 26-year-old was rested for last week’s game against Melbourne and although he fought against the move, he now admits he’s better for it.

“I’m actually feeling really good, I actually wanted to play last week and I thought my body wasn’t feeling too bad but even now with a week off, I’m feeling even better so I can sort of understand now why the coaches wanted me to have it and having the two byes during the year definitely helps this time of year...”

Daniel Currie filled the ruck role against the Demons and Goldstein knows it will be a challenging time at the selection table. While he’s not willing to predict if he’ll be named in the side on Thursday, he hopes his form this season will be enough to convince Brad Scott and co.

“Match committee’s a wonderfully strange beast and you never know what’s going to happen in there so you never count your chicken’s before they’ve hatched…I really hope so.”

If he plays, as expected, Goldstein says he will set himself for the big task of playing on Essendon’s dynamic ruckman Paddy Ryder.

“His leap is unbelievable, he’s up there with Nic Nat (Naitanui) for his jumping ability and his movement around the ground ans so I think you’ve got to make sure you’re on your toes…you can’t really afford to switch off on him.”