NORTH Melbourne coach Dean Laidley refused to speculate on his team's chances of a top-four finish, despite their gutsy eight-point win over the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night.

The 13.14 (92) to 11.18 (84) victory puts the Kangaroos level with the Sydney Swans (who play the Western Bulldogs on Sunday) in fourth position, but Laidley was more concerned with his team actually securing a place in the top eight.

"I reckon when we've won enough games to finish in the eight we'll start thinking about the top four," he said.

"You can't think about top four until you're in September or you might find yourselves on holiday.

"That's the reality of it, it's that close, everyone plays each other. We've got another tough gig next week with the Bulldogs so it'll be on for young and old, and then we play Carlton, so (if) you take your eye off the ball for one minute, and that's not just us, that's every team in the competition, you get caught with your pants down."

Laidley was delighted with his team's performance, particularly with their ability to overcome the late loss of captain Adam Simpson with a hip injury.

He said once Simpson was ruled out, the Kangaroos decided to throw tagging out the window and win as much contested football as they could.

Laidley paid special tribute to the courage shown by Scott McMahon, Drew Petrie, Josh Gibson and particularly Daniel Wells, who all stood up in Michael Firrito's 100th game.

Wells' night did not start too well, hobbling off with a knee injury and facial wound inside the first 40 minutes, but he bounced back to top his side’s possession tally with 31.

"I thought we played some very very good footy tonight," Laidley said.

"I was very pleased with the contribution right across the board.

"We won the contested ball, penetrated the game like we wanted to, we shared the workload, had some terrific individual efforts and I thought we deserved to win and that's not taking anything away from Brisbane.

"I thought it was outstanding."

Laidley said the Kangaroos had enjoyed their stint on the Gold Coast but were now looking forward to entrenching their identity in Melbourne.