North Melbourne GM Football Brady Rawlings has backed Ben Brown and Jared Polec to bounce back from their respective omissions.

The pair were left out of the Roos’ side that played on Saturday, but are expected to play a key role in the coming weeks, with several games in quick succession.

“We all know Jared’s a great player. He obviously got the four coaches’ votes from the Blues,” Rawlings said of Polec.

“But playing your role is a really big part of our behaviours which we want to promote, and he wasn’t doing that, so found himself out of the team.”

“I won’t go into detail in terms of what his actual role was or what was asked of him, but we’ve got a young list, a lot of 22-and-unders and we need to promote roles and behaviours, and if you don’t do that, anyone is susceptible to getting dropped.

“We’ve lost six games in a row and clearly we’re not happy about it, and we feel change needs to be made and we promote the behaviours the coaching staff are after.”

Polec has played a key role through the midfield since joining the club last year.

Brown had not missed a game since 2016, before missing the clash against Adelaide.

“It’s probably no secret Ben hasn’t been in the best of form,” Rawlings said.

“We know what he’s capable of; he’s kicked over 60 goals three years in a row, so he’s one of the elite players of the competition.

“But as for everyone on our list … if they are not performing over a certain amount of time, their spot comes under scrutiny.

“We thought the best thing for Ben and team was for him to have a week off and no doubt he’ll have a huge part to play in the coming weeks.”

Polec and Brown will look to put their hands up for selection, with a short turnaround against Geelong on Wednesday evening.