North stalwart Drew Petrie says his side is capable of being competitive at the pointy end of the season, but has to focus on putting a consistent, four quarter performance together.

Petrie told SEN’s Morning Glory that the Roos had played some impressive football throughout the season at times, but were letting themselves down with lapses of concentration.

“We’ve shown some good patches of form, but have been far too inconsistent,” Petrie said on Wednesday.

“I don’t think we’ve played a four quarter game all season. We all strive to do that, and every week it’s one bad quarter that’s continually let us down.”

The number 20 highlighted recent games where sides had been able to get a run on and take the game away from the Kangaroos.

“(In the) Collingwood game they kicked nine goals (in the third quarter), Sydney kicked six in a quarter against us and against the Giants a couple of weeks ago I think they kicked four or five in a quarter which brought them back into the game, so we’re still striving to play that perfect four quarter game.”

Meanwhile, coach Brad Scott has returned to Arden Street on limited duties and Petrie said the playing group had continued to manage the coaching change well, with Darren Crocker still in charge on Saturday against the Suns.

“With Brad coming back, he’s been here Monday, Tuesday and will be here today to deliver the main meeting message but then he’ll hand back to ‘Crock’ for the weekend’s game,” the 32-year-old said.

“The assistant coaches have a lot to say, all of them in general around the footy club, so it’s not too different that ‘Crock’ was a little more vocal in the three weeks Brad was absent. It hasn’t been a disruptive transition at all.”

Petrie also said fellow key Roo Daniel Wells was stepping up his training regime and had no doubt he would feature again soon in 2015.

“He’s going ok, Wellsy... he’ll play this year, I’m confident about that.”

“He’s definitely doing more and more each week. It’s very hard to put a timeframe on it (his return) with the Achilles soreness he’s still got. The club really wants that to be non-existent so he can use his explosiveness throughout games.

“We need a player like him to open up games and break things open for us and get the footy from one end to the other for us, because that’s what he does.”