Geelong senior coach Chris Scott will call on his midfield to control the centre square and starve North Melbourne’s key forwards as a result.
The Cats will face the ladder-leading Kangaroos on Saturday night under the roof of Etihad Stadium, with Scott preparing the side under the expectation All-Australian ruckman Todd Golstein will play.
Goldstein carried a knee injury into North Melbourne’s loss to Sydney a fortnight ago and missed last week against Richmond.
But Scott is confident the influence of the competition’s most dominant big man can be nullified by the Cats’ midfield.
“It’s a really key part of their game – particularly at Etihad where the ball moves so fast,” Scott said on this week’s episode of #TweetTheCoach.
“You get slaughtered in the centre bounces [then] you’re going to be in trouble.”
“We’re pretty confident in our group – particularly our ruckmen. Rhys Stanley and Zac Smith haven’t played a lot for us and our midfield depth is pretty strong.”
Scott says winning the midfield battle will be a determining factor for two reasons.
“The first part is to make sure we nullify their really penetrating clearances, because if they do get some space and kick it unpressured into their tall forwards then they can be hard to stop,” he said.
“The second part is to make sure we put them on the back foot a bit as well and we think we’ve got enough weapons in there to put their backline under pressure.”
For the full episode of this week's #TweetTheCoach, watch the video above.