The St Kilda tactic that caught North Melbourne "off guard" last week

North Melbourne coach David Noble has admitted his side was caught off guard by a tactic used by St Kilda, in response to the AFL’s new ‘stand’ rule.

Instead of manning the mark, the Saints had their player standing five metres back and outside of the protected zone where they could move freely in last week’s practice match.

This gave the Kangaroos kicker more space to work with, but removed the stationary aspect of the new rule.

Noble believes we will see counters to the new rule as the season unfolds.

“It was interesting, we had heard of a couple of clubs looking at that through their training,” the North Melbourne coach told SEN’s Dwayne’s World.

“I don’t think we took enough advantage of that. The guys were perhaps a little caught off guard, you know, ‘do we come forward and take the space or do we play on?’.

“It will certainly open up angles inside or around. The ability for a player to come in from behind the man on the mark, even though there’s a bit of a protected zone there, he can’t move so you’re able to shape the ball by handball to start plays at different times.

“I think it’ll give teams what they’re after, but coaches and clubs will always adjust and try and slow it down again.

“I think there’ll be some elements of do you concede that man on the mark and look to move numbers back into the back half, we’ll see.

“Certainly I think speed is the key. We’ve been given access by the man on the mark being stationary to take more speed into the game and that’s what we’ll be trying to do.”

North Melbourne hosts Port Adelaide at Marvel Stadium in Round 1, while St Kilda travels to New South Wales to face GWS.

ST KILDA a very early nominee for best man-on-the-mark strategists. Several times against North last week a Saints player deliberately stood outside zone - 5m away - where they could move freely in an attempt to cut off angles and move to better guard dangerous space.

— Sam Edmund (@Sammy__Edmund) March 2, 2021