BLUES A ROO WORRY

Roo wary of Blues in ladder logjam year

ROOS star Shaun Higgins says Carlton may be winless, but the even nature of this year’s AFL season means they should never be underestimated when the two sides meet in Hobart on Saturday night.

SMOOTH moving North Melbourne midfielder Shaun Higgins says the AFL competition is too even to take any side lightly, regardless of ladder positions.

The Roos will step on to Blundstone Arena for the first time in 2018 on Saturday night as warm favourites against Carlton, which is languishing last and yet to register a win in the first three rounds.

However with Port Adelaide the only unbeaten outfit, the closeness of the league leaves Higgins in no doubt that North will need to play its best football if it is to square the ledger at 2-2.

“I think you see across the whole competition, because it is so even it looks like teams fluctuate from week to week,” Higgins said. “But that’s just the evenness of the competition, we know we need to be at our best each week to be really competitive.

“We felt last year and even this year nothing has changed, if we play to the way we want to play and bring the effort and energy to a really high level, we feel we are going to be in every game we play.

“That is no different this week, we know we will have to be at our best because even though Carlton are 0-3, they have played some good footy at times this year.

“What we know is they have started games really well ... and they have some top-end talent throughout the team [and] we need to make sure we get things right to combat that.”

Higgins said the players were excited to get down to Hobart, where the side has built an impressive record.

“It is well noted we have a pretty good record down there, it is a big opportunity for the footy club.

“But more importantly, the players enjoy going down there, we get great support and the atmosphere is really good and this week there will be a big crowd with the first game and playing a Victorian team.”