NAB League-listed players Ben Kellett, Ned Timms and Jett Bermingham will return to the fold while former skipper Jordan Dillon is also pushing for selection.

Dowie said injured forward Dylan Parish - who endured hamstring tightness in round one and missed this past Saturday's loss to South Warrnambool - could also be fit to play.

The multiple premiership coach, who guided North Warrnambool Eagles to within three points of their first Hampden league grand final win in 2019, said the Warrnambool game was vital.

"You look at Koroit and South, who are both going to be very strong. You might pinch one (win) against them but even though it's early days, they're the talk of the competition," he said.

"Koroit has been for the past 10 years and South are now as well. I think the teams around us are almost like eight-point games as we're probably going to be fighting for a similar position to them.

"It's early days but it could be that third spot, could be for a double chance or it could be for a finals spot.

"It's a bit of a guessing game at the moment and it's hard to get a good gauge of where teams are at until we've played them once but this is an important game."

Dowie said his side, whose win-loss ledger is even at one apiece, had the sense it would build momentum as the season progressed.

For now, more goals are a focus. As is increasing work rate.

The Eagles have slotted just 15 goals from two rounds and currently have the sixth-best points scored tally.

"We haven't kicked a lot of goals and that's something we might look at," Dowie said.

"Hopefully we can be harder to score against. We've usually been OK there but I think South had a few too many scoring shots (on Saturday).

"Usually when your offence isn't great and you're giving the ball up it can hurt your defence."

But are early wins all they're cracked up to be?

"Every game I coach and every game we play we want to win, certainly," he said.

"But I think it depends who you're playing. We've got Warrnambool, Camperdown and then Koroit after that. We feel like it's a fairly tough start.

"When you look at it like would you rather be winning early games and limping into finals with not much momentum or winning games in the back half of the season and feel like you're playing well?

"It depends which way you're looking at things. We had a lot of guys play cricket (this summer) as Woodford went really deep into finals and we're probably struggling a bit for depth and numbers a bit.

"We obviously want players to come back and we want to win every game. You'd love to be four and zip, absolutely, but how things stand after round 18, how you finish is almost more important."

Dowie said his club's depth could improve as the season progressed.

"I think (ex-Richmond and Hawthorn forward) Ty Vickery is keen to play more games, even Billy Smedts is still a North Warrnambool player," he said.

"Sam McKinnon is another. He's in Melbourne but he's still a North Warrnambool player. It's ideal if you are winning early games but it's really about where you're positioned in round 18."

Dowie was pleased Parish - a damaging forward option - was back in the mix.

"He's never had a hamstring (injury) before so we just erred on the side of caution," he said.

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"He felt he could've played against South (on Saturday). He's probably a good chance to play (against Warrnambool).

"It's really just about a bit of management with Dylan. I've never been a big one for fitness tests, I often just like to trust the player with how they're feeling. They know their body better than we do.

"Obviously it affects the team if they're injured but we trust them with their call.

"Hopefully as the season goes on his body will get stronger."

Dowie said Dion Johnstone was likely to miss the Warrnambool clash but was in the frame to return against Camperdown in a fortnight after suffering an ankle injury in round one.

He said his side would continue working on its connection between defence, midfield and offence and educating its young list.

North will host Warrnambool at Bushfield Recreation Reserve on Saturday.

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