An under-siege Essendon has North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson on high alert.
The Bombers’ season is on the canvas just a fortnight in after heavy defeats to Hawthorn and Port Adelaide.
Coach Brad Scott is facing mounting pressure, after a horror finish to last season and a difficult run of opponents to come after the Roos.
North Melbourne won its opening match but is also in desperate need of four points having succumbed to wooden spooner West Coast Eagles last week.
The Roos go into the match as heavy favourites but Clarkson is bracing for the “Essendon of old” at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.
“Anyone who has got their backs to the wall are usually (fired up), we’re expecting Essendon’s best,” Clarkson said.
“Even in passages of play over the last two rounds, they’ve played against two pretty good opponents in Hawthorn jumping on the rebound and so were Port Adelaide.
“They still played some good patches of footy and we can see through the course of those games that the Essendon best will trouble anyone.
“We’ve got to prepare for that more so than prepare for the fact they haven’t been at their best consistently right through those two four-quarter performances.”
The Roos have named George Wardlaw after opting to go into last week’s match against the Eagles unchanged.
Wardlaw, Aidan Corr and Callum Coleman-Jones come in for Jack Darling (omitted), Jacob Konstanty (omitted) and Griffin Logue (injured).
Clarkson said the hard-nosed Wardlaw would play on time restrictions despite being deemed fit to play last week.
“He’s had a really good training block,” he said.
“We had 23 pretty good performers the week before against Port Adelaide … he’s good to go and maybe the extra week was a benefit for him to freshen up.
“Hopefully he provides a spark for us but he’ll be on limited game time, but with the fifth interchange it just gives you a bit more affordability to manage the time load of some of your players.”
