NORTH Ballarat can breath a little easier as it prepares to tackle Springvale in the Victorian Football League at Dandenong tomorrow.
The Roosters will not have to worry about goal sneak Stephen Milne or last year's AFL national draft number one selection Brendon Goddard.
Both players, who were tentatively named by Springvale on Thursday night, have been promoted to the St Kilda line-up for its clash with Adelaide tomorrow.
Justin Peckett and Daniel Wulf will also play in the AFL encounter rather than for the Scorpions.
The Roosters will not be sorry to see Milne missing.
He cut North Ballarat to ribbons two years ago with a devastating goalkicking display at Dandenong's Shepley Oval - a performance which was significant in launching his AFL career.
And last round Milne kicked seven goals after half-time to finish with eight against Port Melbourne.
North Ballarat will still have to watch Craig Callaghan, Andrew Thompson, elusive forward Josh Houlihan, Leigh Fisher, Ben Schwarze and Allan Murray - all in-form players from St Kilda.
This is nothing new for the Roosters though.
They face this type of scenario almost every week and will get on with the job at hand.
North Ballarat might be on the bottom on the ladder, but it still has much to play for with a view to the long-term future.
The Roosters cannot afford to allow the season to fall away too dramatically.
They certainly do not want to see their spiral downwards go into free-fall as it will if Springvale gets on top in the same away as Coburg did a week ago.
Every North Ballarat player needs to take a long hard look at himself and ensure the Roosters get back to where they are a real possibility of causing an upset.
North Ballarat has threatened in many games to cause a boilover, only to lapse or run out of time after a sluggish start.
Near the top of the Roosters' objectives tomorrow should be closing down Springvale in time-on.
North Ballarat has repeatedly lost touch in "red time" - unable to maintain defensive pressure across the ground.
The defence of Kieran Murrihy, Marc Greig, Shaune Moloney and Damian Lubeek appears solid enough as long as the heat is maintained up the ground.
This means ruckman Stephen Jurica, Gerard McCorkell, Julian Field and Jacob Spolding getting enough support.
North Ballarat will again have plenty of marking power in attack with Nathan Saunders and Adam Winter, but the Roosters cannot afford to again fall for the trap of kicking the football high and long - and hoping for the best.
Former North Ballarat coach and now Springvale coach Gerard FitzGerald was on hand to see the Roosters capitulate against Coburg.
He was surprised as anyone with ease with which the Tigers walked over the Roosters.
It is up to North Ballarat to show that was only an aberration and FitzGerald will have much more to worry about tomorrow.
This weekend's VFL matches: today, Frankston v Tasmania, Williamstown v Northern Bullants; tomorrow, SPRINGVALE v NORTH BALLARAT at Dandenong, Box Hill Hawks v Geelong , Werribee v Coburg Tigers, Bendigo Bombers v Sandringham, Port Melbourne bye.