Scott lauds Edwards
North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has sung the praises of recalled forward Aaron Edwards after his six-goal haul
Edwards kicked three goals in the second quarter, sparking a North Melbourne fight back after they found themselves 24 points down at the first break following a sluggish start.
He then kicked another two in the third term, and one in the last to cap off an impressive performance.
Previously his best haul in a senior AFL game was four.
The 27-year-old was dropped from the side after its round four loss to Fremantle due to changes in North Melbourne's forward structure, and since then has been battling hard in the VFL to regain his spot.
He kicked 10 goals for North Ballarat last weekend, a performance Scott couldn't ignore.
The 27-year-old repaid Scott's faith in him with six goals and a season-high 16 disposals including 10 marks, and five tackles, driving his side to a 41-point win over Melbourne.
"I'm more pleased with his five tackles [than his six goals]," Scott said after his side's second win of the season.
"That was an area that he's traditionally being pretty good in anyway, certainly since I've been at the club.
"He went back [to the VFL] and his attitude was first class. He got the result on the scoreboard last week in the VFL with 10 goals but his five tackles today were just outstanding.
"His work defensively is very good and we know what he can do offensively."
Scott credited assistant coach Brett Allison for his work with Edwards to develop more "strings to his bow" and become a more complete player.
"Brett Allison should take a lot of credit because he's worked with him on making him a multi-dimensional player," Scott said.
"Traditionally he was a goal square-lead-mark-forward, and there's very few of those left in the game now so he had to add other strings to his bow and he's gone away and worked really hard on those things."
Edwards was not alone in his stellar effort in the win, with teammate Daniel Wells also playing a key role in North Melbourne's turn around.
After a terrific performance against Geelong last week where he had 28 touches, Scott said, "if he lived up to expectations every single week he'd be the best player we've ever seen", and on Saturday once again he was incredible.
The number two draft pick from 2002, had 29 disposals, seven clearances and three goals, ratifying Scott's comments.
"He's been fantastic for us this year," Scott said.
"Quite often you don't hear crowd noise in the [coach’s] box but at the end of the game there when he won the ball a couple of times the North supporters really got behind him which I thought was really good because they’ve got to support him.
"He's a terrific player and has been for a long time, I've often said you can't live up to people's expectations because they're unachievable.
"He sets very high expectations for himself and I think he can be a genuinely elite player and he's starting to show that now. He's got some real belief now and he's got some real belief in his body which is most important."