Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
The expanded bench offers North Melbourne the flexibly to reintroduce hard-nosed midfielder George Wardlaw on managed minutes.
Wardlaw trained on Wednesday after missing the Roos’ round 1 victory over Port Melbourne but is available for their trip to take on West Coast Eagles on Sunday.
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said Wardlaw was a chance to play last week but the Roos erred on the side of caution.
“He trained fully and to be fair he trained pretty well last week and we could’ve nearly played him last week,” Clarkson said.
“He’s right to play and I think perhaps the beauty for all sides and coaches now is in some match committee we’ve saved some time not worrying about the sub.
“But now we spend a hell of a lot of time working out what our rotations are going to be.
“When you’re bringing guys back from injury, in particular, you can probably look after them a bit more and they don’t have to play as much game load.
“There’s always one or two players between 55-60 per cent game time, so we’ll have the option of using that with George if he comes back into the side.”
Wardlaw is not the only change the Kangaroos could make for the Eagles, with Riley Hardeman and Charlie Spargo fit to play.
Spargo crossed from Melbourne as a free agent at the end of last season but had an interrupted pre-season through injury.
“Both of those guys are available to play, similar situation as George,” Clarkson said.
“We just need to make a judgment on whether they come into the side … our VFL team for round 1 of the VFL have got a bye.
“Some of those things implicate us a little, bit we’ll work that out later in the week.”
