NORTH Melbourne won't get caught up trying to win the individual battles against Nat Fyfe and Aaron Sandilands this round, knowing Richmond was recently able to thrash Fremantle despite brilliant performances from the star midfield duo.

Sandilands led Freo to a 57-16 hit-out rout against Richmond in round seven at the MCG, setting up Fyfe (11 clearances) and his fellow midfielders to win the clearance count 43-23.

However, the Tigers were able to weather that stoppage storm and hurt the Dockers on the rebound, dominating possessions (403-346) and inside 50s (64-42) to set up a 77-point victory.

North coach Brad Scott sung the praises of Freo's ruckman and captain on Thursday, telling reporters Fyfe was back to his best after long-running leg injuries, while Sandilands, at 35, remained "one of the great challenges for all ruckmen".

Scott said in-form tagger Ben Jacobs was in the mix to play on Fyfe, while ruckman Todd Goldstein would be instructed to play to his strengths against Sandilands in what will be his 200th game.

However, Scott suspected it would take a combined effort from North's entire midfield to restrict the influence of Fyfe and Sandilands, and suggested Richmond's round seven performance provided a template his team could follow at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

"If you look at the Richmond game Sandilands was unbelievable and Fyfe was unbelievable, but Richmond's midfield was able to limit the damage from stoppages and they were able to score the other way," Scott said.

"There are so many elements to the game, you want to win everything. But we've just to look at the game on balance and make sure that we can defend what potentially for them could be hit-out dominance, as it was for Fremantle against Richmond, but back Goldy in too and try and get him to get his hands to the ball."

Scott was not worried by rival teams' concerns about the hardness of Optus Stadium's playing surface in its inaugural season, ruling out resting Jacobs and Sam Wright, who have come back from long-term foot injuries this year, or veteran Jarrad Waite.

"The Stadium obviously looks unbelievable and there's been a bit of talk about the surface but that looks pretty good to me," Scott said.

"(Resting players) hasn't come into our consideration. The medical staff did their report, if they're fit to play the ground hardness won't come into consideration I wouldn't have thought."