North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson was noncommittal when asked about who will play as the Kangaroos' starting ruck on Good Friday against Carlton.
It is widely expected that Callum Coleman-Jones, who played the role of second ruck in Round 3, will assume the starting ruck role, with Jack Darling to replace him in the forward line.
Darling and young forward Cooper Trembath are capable of chopping out in the ruck, but Clarkson did not close the door on a Taylor Goad debut despite missing the start of the season with injury.
“We'll compete as hard as we can in there,” Clarkson said at his weekly presser.
“It will be a pivotal part of the game because that's Carlton's real strength is their contested ball…if you look at the last 5-10 years of Carlton, they've always been strong in that area so we've got to compete really well in there.”
Clarkson stressed that Darling's omission on Saturday was not form based, but a result of the club choosing to line up with two rucks.
He added that the club dealt with the Xerri incident by the close of Monday, noting that the club did not want to take the ruck's competitive edge away.
“If we take that way from him, it takes away his most significant strength,” Clarkson said.
“Having said that, you've got to play within the rules of the game as much as you possibly can but if you run close to that white line, you're going to transgress from time to time and just hope either you get away with it or your transgression isn't severe enough to warrant a penalty.
“He's a great competitor and we won't ask him to change his ways in that regard.”
Pressed on how he viewed Xerri's indiscretion, which resulted in suspension, Clarkson said: “I've got views I don't want to share publicly, but we move on.”
