While North suffered an ignominious 104-point loss to St Kilda in round two, they bounced back in style with a gritty win against West Coast last weekend.
Malceski said the Swans couldn't afford to take any opposition lightly, let alone the Kangaroos at Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
"Brad Scott was a hard nut when he was playing and I think he's just trying to bring that into their team, which they [had] previously, as well," he said on Tuesday.
"I think it's just their hardness and we've got to match them this week.
"Every team we come up against each week is going to be a tough challenge. There are teams that you'd think wouldn't win, who are winning. It's a very even competition."
Malceski said the Swans' solid win against North in their NAB Challenge clash at Narrandera was irrelevant to Saturday's contest.
"They were missing a fair few players. Practice matches are totally different compared to the season games," he said.
"The intensity's up a lot more and there's a lot more run and a lot more bigger hits and that sort of stuff.
"We haven't really looked at that game; we'll just look to the game they played on the weekend and the game we played and see where we can improve."
The Swans' free-running backline has been one of their strengths in 2010 and it was in full flight against Richmond in round three, with look-away handpasses and soccer skills part of the players' repertoire.
Malceski said good friend and teammate Rhyce Shaw had been particularly chuffed with some of his work during the transitions that left the Tiger forwards grasping at thin air.
Coach Paul Roos had yet to express his opinion but Malceski said the party tricks were unlikely to be a regular feature of the Swans' play.
"Shawry reckons he's a Harlem Globetrotter. He's putting his hand up for the basketball team next year," he said.
"I didn't even realise until after the game when Shawry came up to me and he was pumping himself up about the handball over the top and the little chip-up kick, but nothing was really said about it."
