The Roosters delivered a vastly better performance against Casey Demons last week, in comparison to its forgettable season opener where it lost by 188 points.

The club will be keen to put that display behind it and now the challenge is to repeat the dosage of competitive, hard-edged football.

Coach Marc Greig said the Roosters, coming off a six-day break, set the standard for its competitiveness in last week’s 46-point loss. The focus will now be to maintain that and sharpen up its execution with ball in hand.

“We’ll keep working on decision making and our main focus at the moment is ball movement,” Greig said.

“The best players in any sport are the best decision makers, that’s what we’re harping on at the moment.

“We’ve got to make better decisions in the front half to enable us to get another 10 inside 50s and cut the other team down by team inside 50s.”

The Roosters will be without some key personnel as Luke Kiel (hamstring), James Keeble (cork), Lane Buckwell (calf) and Hayden Walters (suspension) exit the side. But Greig said the players coming in would be expected to bring the same intent and mindset.

“We need the boys to step up pretty quickly, while they aren’t the players of that calibre - tackling, chasing and pressure – that’s got nothing to do with ability, that’s just mindset.”

North Ballarat is well-aware of the reigning premiers’ strengths. High possession football is something Footscray thrives on. The Roosters will endeavour to stem the flow of uncontested marks and control play.

“The defensive side of it will be a real focus, particularly in the first quarter. And if we can reduce them to under 20 marks a quarter, we’ll be well and truly in the game, because that’s their primary method of ball movement – chipping it around and using that free man.”