North Melbourne’s AFL finals push faces a massive test in the coming weeks and coach Brad Scott says taking a big scalp will hopefully allow the Kangaroos to prove they are a good team after all.
Following ninth placings in the past two seasons, Scott’s Kangaroos only just managed to beat Gold Coast last week by seven points.
It was North’s fifth win from 11 games, although once again it was against a struggling side.
The 12th-placed Kangaroos tackle top-eight sides Adelaide, St Kilda and West Coast in the next three weeks.
Ninth-placed Carlton and 10th-placed Richmond also loom on the horizon in the next five weeks, as Scott faces scrutiny over whether the Kangaroos are actually on the right track.
“We’ve got a pretty tough month ahead,” Scott told reporters on Thursday.
“Regardless of the big scalp, we’ve just got to win games. We play good sides so if we win them we’ll hopefully prove ourselves to be one.
“We’re like any emerging side. We’re looking for our young players to take the next step.”
Scott claimed finals football hadn’t even entered his mind.
“A lot of people talk about it,” he said ahead of Sunday’s Etihad Stadium clash with the second-placed Crows.
“We as a club are really confident about the path that we’re on.
“From that, people have extrapolated that to mean that we expect to play finals.
“At the moment we’re not playing at finals-level intensity or footy that’s worth of playing finals.
“That’s our focus. If we play footy that’s good enough I’m sure we’ll get there.”
Scott said North’s challenge was to stay the course that the club embarked upon at the start of 2010.
“We’re really confident and people’s opinions outside of that are just that, they’re opinions,” he said.
“The game against Geelong proved that at our best we’re a very capable side.”
Scott said Sunday’s midfield battle would be the major battleground.
“We think we can really take it up to them in that area. That’s where it begins for us,” he said.
“If we can at least go some way to matching them in there, that will lessen the reliance on our defenders to take care of Kurt Tippett and Taylor Walker and Ian Callinan and Jason Porplyzia and these sorts of guys.”
