MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey says the 119 interchange rotations his side made against Geelong at Skilled Stadium on Sunday, an AFL record, was not a pre-planned tactic.

Instead, the remarkable number was a by-product of the way his side took on the Cats.

"I must admit we didn't aim to have 119, I can guarantee you," Bailey said at Junction Oval on Tuesday.

"It's probably a little bit easier to rotate players at Kardinia Park [Skilled Stadium] because it's a bit narrow across the ground with interchanges, so that probably helped to some degree.

"The players certainly feel fresher and the two or three-minute rest gives them a chance to recover and they feel mentally fresh coming back on and physically fresh coming back on, so we'll continue to rotate.

"I don't know how many we'll get this week, but it'll certainly determine on how they're going and the speed of the game and the intensity of the game."

Bailey said taking on North Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday would be a "real challenge" for his charges, but he remains adamant a competitive effort will again be the focus.

"Competitive is still a good word to keep using," Bailey said. "We were competitive for 85 per cent of the game and 15 per cent we weren't, so when you get into that competitive mindset, you've got to be competitive every week.

"I'm sure someone will count how many times I'll say it again, but competition is important and that's what you play the game for - to compete."

Meanwhile, Bailey said he would be rapt if his club could gain greater opportunities to train on the MCG in the future.

"[AFL chief executive] Andrew (Demetriou) has basically said he'd like to help Richmond get a ground and a surface to train on and, if the MCG is available, we'll be happy to train on it once a week as well.

"We'd like to share the MCG and, if we can train on it, that's great.

"But I think Andrew was more concerned about trying to get them a surface to run around on and I think it was the surface of Richmond that was more of a concern than to train anywhere else."