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FIFTH place is not encouraging North Melbourne to get too ambitious.

Aware of the risk that the side's position after 17 rounds could be short-lived, captain Adam Simpson has re-affirmed that a place in September is the Kangaroos' current target.

"I don't think we're worried about fourth spot to be honest," he said from Arden Street on Tuesday. "We just want to play finals. We want to get there first and then worry about top four if we're guaranteed a finals spot.

"There's too many teams fighting for the bottom four spots at the moment to worry about the top four."

North Melbourne leapt from 10th with its win over Melbourne on Sunday, aided by losses for Collingwood, the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda a day earlier.

The Roos play the eighth-placed Lions at Gold Coast Stadium this Saturday night, knowing that defeat would send the latter half a game clear of them.

"We're fifth spot this week but we could be out of the eight next week," Simpson said. "I don't think we're comfortable where we are.

"We know how important it is to win this week and, with five games to go, we probably need to win three at least to play finals footy.

"Looking at this week, this game with Brisbane is going to determine where we end up I reckon. It's pretty much our biggest game of the year and I'm sure Brisbane are saying the same thing."

In contrast, Simpson wouldn't buy into the prospect that a place in the top four is there to be taken, should the Roos' current form continue and the Sydney Swans slip to the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle in the next fortnight.

"I wouldn't say it's wide open," he said. "Sydney are a game and percentage in front of us and there's only five games to go. They've only got to keep winning and they're right.

"They deserve to be where they are and if they had have won that game against us, they'd be two games clear in fourth. They're a pretty good team and they deserve to be fourth."

The 32-year-old also defended his side's efforts in the 28-point win over Demons, who look likely for the wooden spoon, noting that "we take those wins at this time of the year".

"I think Melbourne have really improved in terms of their ability to at least shut a game down now," Simpson said. "I don't think they've been blown out for a while.

"We got a really good start, we were happy with that, but [in] the last three quarters ... we played the game on their terms a little bit.

"Still we had a win, that's what we went out there to do and we move on to Brisbane this week."