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North Melbourne v St Kilda: Saints to make at least three changes, seeking aggression to arrest slump

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St Kilda have dropped midfielder Jack Steele and could lose key defender Jake Carlisle as they urgently seek an AFL form turnaround against North Melbourne.

Three-straight losses have left the Saints teetering at 5-6 and Friday night's clash at Etihad Stadium will be a massive test.

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Coach Alan Richardson acknowledges that North (4-7) are much stronger than their 15th place suggests.

Luke Dunstan will replace Steele as one of at least three changes, with Paddy McCartin (knee) and Nathan Wright (shoulder) injured. Veteran Nick Riewoldt will return from a knee injury, with Jack Lonie also getting a call up. 

North have brought in Declan Mountford, with Ed Vickers-Willis out with a knee injury. 

Richardson is confident that Carlisle will play after the tall defender suffered a knock against Adelaide.

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"We'll pick him if he's 100 per cent – if not then we'll change that," the Saints coach said. "We need our big guys (in defence) to be strong.

"That's a real strong part of their team, the power of their big forwards."

Hugh Goddard is unavailable to replace Carlisle if he is a late withdrawal, with the young defender troubled by a foot injury that will sideline him indefinitely.

The Saints' poor form has meant plenty of media attention, with commentator Dermott Brereton taking aim at veteran Leigh Montagna.

"You could go through a lot of players in our team and say they've been down a bit in recent weeks and Joey is in that group," Richardson said.

"It's not just about Joey, it's about us – we need to get our footy back on track.

"You can sort of understand it [Brereton's criticism], given the performance of our team, but he [Montagna] is a proud guy, he'll bounce back strongly."

Richardson said before Thursday's light training session that the Saints have become too reactive in their play.

"What the message is to the players, and what we hope you would see when you watch us play is that we're really aggressive and bold in the way we play, the way we defend, the way we attack," Richardson said. "We reckon we've found some reasons (and), more importantly, we've found some solutions.

"The proof will be in the pudding tomorrow night."

Richardson said the Kangaroos look strong in many areas of their game.

"If you look at their pressure, some of their clearance work – I know Scotty [coach Brad Scott] was pretty disappointed with some of their clearance work last time – but their ability to score from centre bounces and clearances is pretty positive," Richardson said. "They could quite easily be much higher on the ladder."

The Western Bulldogs search for form in the Sunday match against Melbourne saw them drop Fletcher Roberts, Matthew Boyd and Tim English. Travis Cloke and  Marcus Adams are injured. Into the squad come Dale Morris, Zaine Cordy, Tom Boyd, Tom Campbell, Lukas Webb, Tom Liberatore, Mitch Honeychurch and Bailey Williams. 

Melbourne beefed up its squad with Sam Weideman, Jake Spencer and Ben Kennedy.  

Sydney made one change for its game against Richmond, with  Lewis Melican dropped in favour of Gary Rohan. 

 Carlton, who play an unchanged Gold Coast line-up, brought in Sam Petrevski-Seton and Blaine Boekhorst in response to injuries to Liam Sumner and Alex Silvagni. 

Meanwhile, Port Adelaide utility Aaron Young is returning to AFL ranks as the Power look to bounce back to form in Saturday's home match against Brisbane.

Young,  Jack Neade and Dan Houston mark  Port changes in response to last week's 70-point capitulation to Essendon. Brendon O'Chee, Jimmy Toumpas and Jasper Pittard were all omitted. 

The Brisbane Lions named an unchanged side.  

"There's some guys coming through that certainly deserve selection and Youngy has been a bit in and out, but he's earnt the right to come back in," Port assistant coach Nathan Bassett said on Thursday.

"You lose by 70 points, you're probably going to make some adjustments. It was certainly a pretty tough week.

"We're nearly the last club in the AFL to go through a bad week this year."

Bassett said selectors would reward Young and others producing solid state league form.

"It's more around how many runs some guys have on the board compared to others," Bassett said. "And whether people are demanding selection in the SANFL.

"Some guys are starting to demand selection with their performance, so some will be rewarded."

Port's leadership group has been pressed to make an on-field response in Saturday's twilight fixture against the lowly Lions at Adelaide Oval.

"We have to trust our leaders and our senior players to turn it around," Bassett said. "That is the first time of the year we have lost control of the game and not been competitive for an extended period of time.

"Our pressure in the forward line was average, our midfield accountability was poor and our defenders didn't win enough of their own contests."