James Kelly on… Mitch Duncan’s 250th Game

As good as Mitch's career has been, he's still been an underrated player. 

There have been some big names that have rolled in and out of this football club and Mitch has been a mainstay. He's played some super footy and a lot of different roles and this year speaks to that as well.

Mitch is one of those players as an opposition coach you're always aware of where he is because he can impact the game in so many different ways.  You're worried about his ability to balance up the contest, the ability to use the ball really well going forward, come back and help in transition.. things like that are really valuable skills that the club has done a really great job of maximizing. 

Things that Mitch brought as strengths have become super strengths due to his work ethic.  

James Kelly on… Chris Scott 

He's fine. He's obviously a little under the weather but he's still available, he just thought it was best that he didn't come in today. 

But he'll be coaching tomorrow and it'll be business as usual for the game. 

James Kelly on… Patty’s Return 

It's a good thing for us to get Patty Dangerfield back at any stage of the year but we feel like his program has been managed really well, he feels really good and this week felt like a really good time to bring him back.

We’re all really excited about that. He's excited and feels ready to go. 

We didn't want to get into the situation where we brought him back too early and have him with no continuity with his training, or where he's playing but he can't train. So this talks to how we always try to do things: manage the players and what we feel is best for their individual programs. 

Patty has fallen into that and the main thing is he's coming back into the game feeling really confident in himself and his body and we're just excited to have him back. 

James Kelly on… North Melbourne 

We don't take much notice of how they've gone and their record, we still want to approach the game in the same way we approach every game. 

One thing we do know about North, when they do move the ball, they are dangerous. They have a potent forward line when they get the ball down there and they're certainly up for the fight around the footy, so if we rock up and take notice of their record and don't play the game the way we want it to be played, we'll get bitten. 

We feel like they're a team that's certainly up for the fight and we'll be preparing that way.