North skipper backs recalled Darling to fire

North Melbourne veteran Jack Darling is far from a spent force in the AFL, his skipper says.

Nick Larkey, who will line up in attack alongside a recalled Darling in attack against Carlton on Good Friday, insists the 33-year-old key forward has plenty left to offer.

The backing comes after Darling was dumped from the team last week following a goalless outing against his former club West Coast.

"He's still got a huge role for us," Larkey said.

"It was more of a positional decision than necessarily anything to do with his form.

"It was to do with what we wanted to do with our rucks and how we wanted to balance CJ's (Callum Coleman-Jones) and X's (Tristan Xerri) intensity in the ruck."

Darling responded with three goals in the VFL and earned a senior recall when ruck star Xerri was suspended for serious misconduct after wiping blood on Essendon captain Andrew McGrath.

Darling booted one major in the round-one win over Port Adelaide and was North's fourth-most prolific goal-kicker with 24 in 22 games last year.

"He's playing really strong footy with the minutes he's got on the field," Larkey said.

"He's a big presence, reliable, you know what you're going to get from him.

"So it definitely won't be the last time we're going to see JD."

North made two changes for the clash with Carlton at Marvel Stadium, with draftee Lachy Dovaston (managed) replaced by fellow small forward Zac Banch.

The under-fire Blues have named Wade Derksen to debut alongside Nic Newman, who returns after missing all of 2025 with a serious knee injury.

Adam Cerra and Jordan Boyd are also back, with Zac Williams (ribs) and young defender Harry Dean (concussion) among the outs.

The Kangaroos (2-1) are aiming to continue their positive start to the season, while Carlton (1-2) are desperately seeking a response after throwing away a 43-point lead in their loss to Melbourne last week.