You are correct that North will employ a lock down defensive strategy to nullify Essendon's attack, I'm not sure how well it will work if the Bombers successfully generate run through the middle.
Since the Round 1 & 2 debacles, we have effectively deployed a man-on-man zone at times instead of a set zone/press defence, this caught Hawthorn out in the first quarter and they couldn't generate run off half back at all. It was also combined with an unusual display of skill from North for the first 30 minutes where we hit short targets and made frequent switches working up the ground ala the current Collingwood/Bulldogs style
Clarko being Clarko, he realised he had planned for North to try to run through his defense, got more aggressive and pushed his zone up higher which eventually forced us to crumble with skill errors. Make no mistake though, without the terrible inaccuracy in the 3rd Q we would have still been in that game until the death.
I expect Essendon to win this game by 3-4 goals but like 2018, we do have some new players who are capable of match winning performances. Let's look at the midfield, we all know what we will get from Cunnington, Goldstein & Higgins but Hall and Polec are starting to gel with the side, LDU is emerging, Jed Anderson's pressure is bordering on ridiculous and Ahern is a 10 gamer who has shown he could be anything. Add in Dumont who has a future and it is a fairly complete midfield unit that has its share of good days.
That being said, none of our starting 4 mids are "elite runners", our forward line has been inaccurate and dysfunctional so far in 2019 and if Essendon produce run like they did vs Brisbane last week, we will struggle to keep up.
