Some struggling AFL clubs 'play the kids', but for some that's another name for tanking and North Melbourne coach Brad Scott isn't having a bar of it.
On Thursday, Scott reaffirmed his desire to fight for an unlikely finals appearance despite his side's disappointing season.
"If you know anything about North Melbourne ... we'll fight and bite and scratch until we mathematically have absolutely no chance," Scott told reporters.
"And then when we have mathematically no chance we'll fight and bite and scratch until the end of the season.
"It's just the way we go about it."
The Kangaroos are 16th with a 4-8 record going into their round-14 clash on Saturday night against the Western Bulldogs, their finals chances taking a huge hit with last week's loss to St Kilda.
A club in such a position is well within its rights to blood younger players with an eye on the future.
The losses that generally come with that inexperience inevitably improve that club's draft position, but Scott believes it's a path fraught with danger.
"There's another word for that that the AFL have used in the past ... (tanking)," Scott continued.
"We believe firmly that our culture is our differentiating factor in the competition.
"If you look back through the history no doubt fighting to just qualify for the finals or just missing the finals has affected our draft position.
"But we look at what is a fundamental of our club - it's the Shinboner spirit and our culture that separates us from everyone else.
"We can never do anything to jeopardise that."
Scott made three changes for the clash, bringing in Majak Daw, Andrew Swallow and Jamie Macmillan to replace Kayne Turner (knee), Lachlan Hansen (omitted) and Jed Anderson (omitted).
The Dogs lost Tom Boyd to a calf injury and Lin Jong to a season-ending knee injury and added Tom Campbell and Jack Redpath.
Despite their lowly ladder position, the Roos are only two games outside the eight in one of the most even seasons in the league's history.
But a bright patch of form that saw them win four out of five matches has been dimmed by successive losses in the past fortnight.
"It's obviously disappointing not to win the last two weeks but the most disappointing thing for me has been the way that we've gone about it - it's lacked a bit of Shinboner identity," Scott said.
"That involves our ball movement and it involves the way that we want to pressure the opposition with the ball.
"They've both been lacking the last two games."
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