In the latest instalment of Opposition Watch, Swans Media picks apart North Melbourne ahead of the Sydney Swans’ clash with the Kangaroos at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena on Saturday night.

Recent form

The Roos are placed 17^th on the ladder with two wins and six losses beside their name, but they recorded more scoring shots than the ladder-leading Geelong Cats last week.

North Melbourne fell short in a 16.8 (104) to 11.14 (80) loss to Geelong, but matching the Cats in inside 50s at 47-apiece pointed to the Roos’ firing midfield brigade.

The Roos have defeated Adelaide and Carlton over the opening eight rounds of the season.

Ins and outs

North Melbourne has recalled veteran key defender Scott Thompson (adductor), as well as hard-running backmen Luke McDonald (knee) and Marley Williams (personal reasons), for the Hobart visit.

Sam Wright, Sam Durdin and Curtis Taylor have made way for the trio.

Key match-up

Towering Tasmanian forward Ben Brown will be keen to impress in front of his home crowd, but key Sydney defender Dane Rampe will be doing everything he can to hush his following.

Brown is running second in the Coleman Medal race with 21 goals from eight games this season – so after shadowing gun names like Jeremy Cameron and Taylor Walker over the first eight rounds, Rampe is set for another challenging assignment.

Star Sydney defender Aliir Aliir is also likely to spend some time on Brown.

Last time they met

The Swans edged the Roos in a six-point thriller when the clubs last squared off in Round 17 last season, Aliir arising for the match-winner in the dying stages of the Docklands Stadium game. 

The big-framed Swan drifted forward to clinch the winning goal with less than two minutes remaining on the clock, pouncing on a Tom Papley bat-on to hand his side a 16.8 (104) to 15.8 (98) victory.

Explosive Sydney small forward Ben Ronke was the Swans’ best on his way to five goals and two Brownlow Medal votes, while the match also saw star teammate Lance Franklin slot his 900^th career goal.

What they said

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott: “We’re really looking forward to getting back down to Blundstone Arena. It’s a place we love playing footy, the conditions are unique, it’s a really unique footy ground, it’s like no other ground in the AFL and we just feel at home there. We have unbelievable home-crowd support, and we would have preferred to be down in Hobart earlier in the year, but we’ve got this game plus another three down there this year. We’ll be looking to build on the momentum we’ve created down there in past years.”