Coach Brad Scott ruled Hansen and Adams out before training on Thursday after they both failed to recover from injuries in time.

Adams suffered a concussion in North's round 23 win over Melbourne. He missed last week's final against the Cats. At the time Scott said Adams was a good chance to be available this week, but despite training strongly in the week doctors have advised him to miss another match.

"'Patch' won't play. He's close, but he's not quite right. He saw a specialist whose advice was to err on the side of caution and he'll miss one more week.

"But the good news is he's been able to train fully and get a lot of training under his belt and he'll be available for selection next week."

Hansen meanwhile has struggled all season to overcome a chronic groin complaint and has been ruled out again.

"He trained on Wednesday but not quite well enough. He was very close. We'll keep training him and rehabbing him and hopefully he'll be right for next week."

Scott is preparing to face a Sydney forward line stocked with talls, a matchup situation which has cleared the way for rookie defender Joel Tippett to come into the squad – where he faces a potential matchup with superstar brother Kurt.

"He's in the squad. We want to have a look at our defensive matchups. We'll have a look at things like Sydney's selection, the weather, all those things."

Tippett, formerly with Gold Coast, where he played two games in 2011, has notched four games this season with the Kangaroos. He last played in round 10.