North Melbourne coach Brad Scott believes his team is still to play its best football for 2016 despite a growing injury list and uncertainty about when stars Jarrad Waite and Daniel Wells will return.

The Kangaroos fell to eighth spot on the AFL ladder after losing to West Coast by 32 points at Domain Stadium. Just weeks ago, they sat in top spot.

To make matters worse, Scott could be forced to do without both Farren Ray (hamstring) and Mason Wood (knee) for Saturday’s match against Port Adelaide after the pair failed to see out the game against West Coast.

They join Waite and Wells on the injury list, along with Shaun Higgins, Ben Jacobs, Sam Wright, and Lachlan Hansen.

Scott said he could not guarantee Waite and Wells would be available for the game against Port Adelaide.

“At the start of the year, we had a deep list, a mature list. And, I think, we have played, don’t hold me to it, but 35 or 36 players, with a couple of guys like Hansen who are a couple of weeks away,” he said.

“So, we are certainly using that full list. I would argue that it’s only going to get better, not worse. As we get guys back and we find out what our best team is in the second half of the year, then we’re really optimistic about the second half of the year.”

Scott said he didn’t know whether Wood and Ray’s injuries were serious, but he said Nick Dal Santo had been withdrawn from the game against West Coast because of an illness.

He said his team’s 9-0 start to the season, and the way in which it had performed in recent losses, gave him plenty of cause for confidence.

“Our best footy’s in front of us,” he said.

“We played some really good footy this year and we’ve had some challenges put in front of us and some challenges we haven’t been able to quite overcome.

“We’ve played four pretty good teams in the last month, and really I didn’t walk away from any of those games discouraged that our best wasn’t good enough to win those games.”

Scott said he was upset with the ill-discipline displayed by his players against West Coast, especially four 50m penalties that directly resulted in goals.

“We play an aggressive, combative sport, but it’s a very fine line we walk and the difference between being hard and combative versus undisciplined is quite thin at times, and we were on the wrong side of that line today,” he said.

He did have some praise for debutant Ryan Clarke, who had 21 possessions after being called up to replace Dal Santo.