AAP, May 6: Key forward Lachie Hansen has failed in an improbable mission, but North Melbourne still believe they can pull off something even more unlikely and beat Geelong at home.
Hansen, hospitalised after crashing head-first into an Etihad Stadium fence last weekend, had hoped to recover from a back injury for Saturday's Skilled Stadium AFL clash.
But after pulling out part-way through Friday's final training session, he was replaced by Cameron Pedersen for what would be the elevated rookie's second AFL game.
Coach Brad Scott said it was always going to be a challenge for Hansen.
"At the time, I thought he was very little chance to play, but we decided to give him right up until the final training session and, to be honest, I'm surprised he got to this point," Scott told AAP.
The challenge facing the Kangaroos is even greater.
The unbeaten Cats are on a 24-match winning streak in Geelong.
A victory over the Kangaroos would give them the outright league record for any venue, which they shared with Richmond at Punt Road Oval and South Melbourne at Lake Oval, both achieved in the 1930s.
The Kangaroos, whose first win of the season was against a disappointing Port Adelaide last round, also need to overcome a poor recent record against the AFL's best sides.
Last year, they lost their six matches against the season's top four sides by an average of 67 points.
An ambition to improve that this season started miserably in round two, when Collingwood trounced them by 87 points.
But midfielder Andrew Swallow said while results might not reflect it, the Kangaroos believed they were making ground.
"That was one of the things going into this season, to make the gap between the top teams and us a lot smaller," Swallow said.
"We did some things well against Collingwood, but we missed a lot of goals, which cost us and probably blew the margin out to a lot bigger than what we probably thought it should have been.
"But there's another opportunity and we've got to take these opportunities."
Scott said Pedersen's good VFL form had him close to selection, even before Hansen's injury.
"We have no concerns about the calibre of player coming in," he said.
"Lachie's going to be a good player for us for a long, long time, so any time you lose a player like that it's disappointing, but we're confident of the player coming in."