Miserly Roos to fire up in west

NORTH Melbourne hopes to take its clamps to Perth Stadium when the Kangaroos make their debut at Perth’s new venue against Fremantle.

Brad Scott’s team close out Round 10 against the Dockers on Sunday and will aim to be at their miserly best, locking down resurgent Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe and man mountain Aaron Sandilands.

The key to the Kangaroos’ strong early season form has been their defence. They average a league best 71 points against this season, putting them well ahead of premier Richmond (76 points) and this weekend’s opponent Fremantle (86 points).

Scott said their defensive effort had been “an evolution rather than a revolution”.

“We haven’t thrown everything out and started again,” he said. “Getting personnel back and having good continuity helps. The addition of Majak Daw [rested this week] in defence has really helped.

“The addition of Ben McKay and Sam Durdin, who are playing great footy at VFL level as key defenders, means we’ve been able to train it really strongly on the track.”

North’s defensive pressure begins at the centre stoppage, where fit-again tagger Ben Jacobs is taking names.

Hawthorn juggernaut Tom Mitchell was shut down by Jacobs in the Kangaroos’ upset Round 5 win, while Robbie Gray, Luke Parker and Dustin Martin have been subdued by the 26-year-old.

It seems inevitable that he’ll go to Fyfe on Sunday, although Scott said tackling Fyfe came with “great difficulty”.

“He’s back to his best footy,” Scott said. “He’s a super player and I suspect it’s going to take a midfield effort to combat him. Jacobs’ great strength this year is he’s been able to switch to whoever we need him to switch to in game.”

Todd Goldstein will play game 200 against another long-serving ruckman, Aaron Sandilands.

No current player has more hit-outs than either, and Scott said nullifying the 35-year-old was still a major part of stopping Fremantle.