The Tigers tried a number of options on Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong's George Alexander in round one, with the key forward booting nine goals in the Lions' 67-point win.

Castles, who kicked a league-best 71 goals in 11 games last season, missed the Goannas' opening round win at Griffith, but will line up against the Tigers at Mangoplah Sportsground.

"Murray (Stephenson, Tigers) is a good coach and they're a good enough club that they'll make some adjustments this week, and I think they'll be much better for that experience," Rowe said.

"I would hate to give anyone that impression we think we'll just roll in and give them the same headaches. But we think he (Castles) is the best in the business at what he does, and he straightens us up.

"The way our small forwards play when he's in the team seems to be completely different to when he's out of it. They go from battling to get to the fall of the ball, to understanding there's not too many blokes that will provide a spoil on Trent that will clear the area."

The Goannas are likely to still be without defender Ryan Price (adductor), Brayden Ambler will be out for the short term with a knee injury and young ruckman Zac Hanrahan (kneecap) is tipped to miss another couple of weeks.

Harry Collins joins Castles in playing his first game of the year, however co-captain Nick Collins remains unavailable. Rowe wants to see some improvements in their key indicators this week.

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"There's no doubt we're looking for improvement from our round one effort," he said.

"I really feel like we're putting good training sessions on the paddock and it's a sign things are going to come, but we haven't seen it when it matters (games) at this stage.

We are a bit of a work in progress but we're not here to make excuses. We have high expectations and the bottom line is no matter who is picked or what we're trying, we still have expectations guys will comply with our foundation behaviours and execute our game plan.

"We know if we do that we're capable of playing some real good footy, even if it isn't our best footy.

"I want things to be at 95 per cent and gradually work it up to 100 per cent. At the moment we're probably hovering around the 80 per cent mark and we want to see some Mango footy.

"Last year we established a brand of footy where we were really extreme on our brand of footy, were able to apply manic pressure consistently and slow our opposition down.

"When we got ball in hand some of our ball movement patterns showed we could move the footy well. They're things we're still looking for.

"Our game style is something that I'm confident if you're the number one or number 30 player on the list, you can come in and play their role."

The Goannas will wear the same ANZAC jerseys they wore in a twilight clash against the Tigers last year.

"They acknowledge the people who have served in the MCUE community," Rowe said.

"It's a special one and there's people in the club with strong connections with the names listed on that jersey."

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