North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says he has no choice but to keep throwing young players into the AFL deep end.
The Kangaroos remain second last on the ladder after copping a 70-point belting on Saturday from Port Adelaide.
Scott, with 15 players on the club's injured list, fielded nine Roos with less than 30 AFL games' experience - and six who had had 10 games or less.
"It's a challenge to find guys to come in at the moment just because there aren't many (fit players) there," Scott said.
"There are some guys that we will continue to give opportunity to perhaps before they're ready."
Scott said that stance was at odds with his long-held belief.
"I have always said when we bring guys into our side, we want to make sure that we set them up to succeed - not fail," he said.
"But combined with where we're at but also the injury list, there might be some guys we just need to throw in the deep end."
Scott said North's lowly status was frustrating but was adamant the short-term pain would bring long-term gain.
"We have got to continue building a really strong platform and not jumping at shadows," he said.
"There are some holes that we can potentially plug in the short term that are not going to help us in the long term.
"So we have got to set the club up for the future and I think the platform is really solid.
"But when you're a bit off and you have a few injuries, you can get exposed with young guys, and we did today by a very good team."
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