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Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe is widely considered as one of the most damaging midfielders in the competition, which is why North Melbourne is putting so much thought into how he can be stopped.
A Brownlow medallist and two-time All-Australian, Fyfe has the ability to win the game off his own boot, and has done so often.
“We’ll sit down in match committee in regards to how we stop Nat Fyfe,” North midfield coach Darren Crocker told North Media.
“You obviously need to decide whether we go head-to-head and back our midfielders as a collective to take on their midfielders, or whether you go after a player of Fyfe’s calibre.”
The last time these two sides met, renowned tagger Ben Jacobs restricted Fyfe to 18 disposals in the final three quarters of the match.
With Jacobs unavailable for Sunday’s clash, there’s a lot for the Roos’ coaching staff to ponder.
“You need a plan B in place because if you did choose to take them on through the midfield, there might come a point where he’s basically been so damaging that we have to lock down on him and take away his influence on the game,” Crocker said.
“We’ll definitely have plan B put in place.”
One way to minimise the impact of the 2015 Brownlow Medallist is for ruckman Todd Goldstein to give first use to the North on-ballers.
Rested in JLT2 to ensure he’d be fit and firing for this weekend, the 2016 All-Australian will play a crucial role for the Roos.
“He’s really important, he’s going to play an enormous role,” Crocker said.
“We know how important Goldy is to us already, because he can play such huge gametime, which allows us to keep the likes of Ben Brown forward, or one of our key backs in defence.
“Hopefully, he can give us first use because that will play a really important part in the outcome of the match.”