Finishing touches needed: Scott
Brad Scott was pleased with most aspects of the Roos' win against the Suns, except for his team's finishing
A LACK of execution is what North Melbourne coach Brad Scott said almost cost his team an invaluable win against Gold Coast on Saturday night.
The Kangaroos held off the fast-finishing Suns by seven points at Metricon Stadium, but Scott indicated the most misleading number of the night was the one on the scoreboard.
North had a glut of possession and territory, particularly during the second and third quarters, but was unable to finish Gold Coast off.
It was an oversight Scott said was always going to be punished considering the calibre of the individuals in the Gold Coast side.
"Their talent hasn’t gone anywhere," Scott said of the winless Suns.
"If you let them play their way, they're a really capable side. They're talented players, they're drafted very low for a reason and if you don’t put adequate pressure on them, they can execute very well.
"They actually executed in front of goal a lot better than we did tonight".
North kicked 21 behinds, one more than Gold Coast's total scoring shots, and while Scott was unhappy with the finishing, he was happy to see his team ultimately capitalise on its control around the ground.
"That second quarter was really indicative of that: 20 inside 50s and ... I think we had the ball in our possession 75 per cent of the quarter,"Scott said.
"That's fair control but the execution wasn't there to put them away.
"That gave them hope and they kept coming at us but, to be honest, we've been in that position before this year and haven't handled the pressure. The boys did tonight."
The coach was referring to round eight's loss to Port Adelaide, when the Roos were overrun after leading by the best part of five goals early in the last quarter.
It was part of a sequence of indifferent form that reached its nadir two weeks ago against Hawthorn, when North Melbourne was belted by 115 points.
Brent Harvey, who starred against the Suns with four goals and 29 disposals, said that loss had sat uncomfortably with the playing group over the past two weeks.
"That game was on a Sunday down in Tassie. I would have loved to have played on the Monday," Harvey said.
"Unfortunately we had the bye and we had to wait 14 days to have another crack at another team.
"That certainly sits in the belly and you never want to lose by a large margin like that."
While his players seethed, Scott was working on some key areas of their playing style, particularly disposal efficiency.
He said those targets had only been partially met against the Suns.
"We've turned the ball over far too easily this year and our kicking efficiency has hurt us. We really did a lot of work on that over the last couple of weeks," Scott said.
"I thought to some extent we did that pretty well [tonight], but our kicking forward of centre was still not at the level it needs to be."
The win puts North just a game outside the eight, a position it will be attempting to improve on when it faces in-form Adelaide next Sunday afternoon.
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