North Melbourne failed to lock away a place in the top eight by falling to a nine-point loss against the Swans in Hobart on Saturday, but coach Brad Scott insists he is not concerned by the “loser’s attitude” about his side’s finals chances.
With a tough test to come against GWS next week, the Kangaroos still need another win to guarantee themselves a tilt at the finals series. Melbourne has a chance to supplant the Roos in the eight if they close with two wins and the Giants come away with the spoils over North next Saturday night.
“It won’t concern me at all,” Scott said of Sunday’s fixture between Melbourne and Carlton.
“Our focus is on winning next week. I understand the external interest but it’s a loser’s attitude.
“We really want to focus on trying to compete with the best.
“We haven’t finished in the top four the last couple of years at the home and away season, but we have at the end of the finals series.
“It’s still our focus to be playing really good footy, to compete.
“I don’t really care what anyone else does. What I want to do is get the team into a really good frame of mind so we’re playing really good footy and we win next week, then we launch an assault on the finals series, so that’s where our focus is.
“If we’d sewn it up and put it to bed, our focus is still the same – playing our best footy. Everyone else is looking over our shoulder and I understand that, but we’re not.”
Another factor garnering plenty of outside attention is the contractual situation of veteran forward Brent Harvey who again starred for the Roos in Hobart.
The AFL games record holder is yet to sign a contract for 2017, but while Scott was full of praise for the 38-year-old, he wouldn’t be drawn on any talk about the odds of Harvey playing on next year other than to suggest a “myriad of factors” would be taken into account when deciding on his future.
“He led from the front, he played with really high energy and really dominated parts of the game,” Scott said of Harvey’s 32-possesion, three-goal effort on Saturday.
“He’s just a great competitor and he just tries to will the team over the line every time he plays.
“We’re not going to even address that (contract talk) until we sit down and talk with all the parties involved, including Boomer.
“There will be a myriad of factors that will go into that decision.”
Scott lamented the loss of key defender Scott Thompson in the first quarter and admitted injury had definitely played a part in the club’s loss of form during the second half of the season.
“I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve started a game with 22 players and haven’t finished with them,” he said.
