Carlton coach Mick Malthouse says the AFL ladder is irrelevant and North Melbourne mentor Brad Scott played the same card on Wednesday, insisting the table wasn’t worthy of study.
Scott, a former assistant coach to Malthouse at Collingwood, says the 10th-placed Kangaroos aren’t doing their sums about how many wins they might need to qualify for the top eight and play finals football.
North’s upset victory over sixth-placed Richmond last week boosted the club’s faint hopes of finals action, with a winnable clash in round 16 against 14th-placed Brisbane coming up on Saturday night at the Gabba.
“I don’t know if the pressure’s been ramping up because we don’t look at it the way that probably most pundits do and most supporters do,” Scott told reporters.
“We don’t study the ladder. We study the way we play and the things we’re doing well and the things we need to improve on.
“While that might sound unrealistic, that honestly is the way we go about it.”
Following several close losses in 2013, the Kangaroos boast a percentage of 116.80 which is the sixth-best in the league.
Brisbane have won two of their past three matches, beating second-placed Geelong and 13th-placed Gold Coast and losing only to competition leaders Hawthorn.
Scott is wary of his former Brisbane teammate Jonathan Brown who booted three goals against the Suns.
Fremantle’s Aaron Sandilands and West Coast’s Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox were still the benchmarks for ruckmen in the league, Scott added.
“(But Brisbane’s) Matthew Leuenberger is the other one and ‘Goldy’ (North’s Todd Goldstein) is really pushing to be spoken about in that elite bracket,” Scott said.
“It’s another ruck duel, Goldstein and Leuenberger, that hopefully we’re going to see for another decade.”
Tough-tackling midfielder Levi Greenwood will play his 50th game on Saturday after not winning a senior game until round 13 this season.
Greenwood played a key tagging role on Richmond’s Trent Cotchin last week.
“We’re a harder team when he’s in our side,” said Scott, who praised Greenwood’s positive attitude during his VFL stint.
North forward Lindsay Thomas has one more week of his headbutting suspension to serve.
