BRAD Scott believes Jarrad Waite's best football is still ahead of him even though the North Melbourne recruit is set to turn 32 before the start of next season.
Waite joined North on the first day of last month's free agency period after playing 184 games for Carlton from 2003-2014 and kicking 252 goals.
The spearhead's top finish in Carlton's best and fairest award came back in 2007, when he finished third, while injury and, to a lesser extent, suspension have meant he has not played more 16 games in a season since 2008.
But Scott told NMFC.com.au he was confident Waite could play career-best football with the Roos.
"Jarrad will add another dimension to our forward line," Scott said from North's training camp in Utah.
"We still believe his best football is in front of him, even though he's closer to the end of his career than the start."
Scott has similarly high hopes for North's other free agency acquisition this year, former Western Bulldog Shaun Higgins.
Higgins, who turns 27 in March, played 129 games and kicked 128 goals in nine seasons at the Whitten Oval.
The classy utility has endured more than his fair share of injuries in his career so far, including a navicular fracture that limited him to three games in 2013.
Higgins bounced back to play 20 games this year and Scott believes he too can improve at Arden Street.
"We've got really high hopes for Shaun," Scott said.
"We are not bringing him in to do anything special in terms of winning games off his own boot, but we really feel he'll add much-needed class to our squad.
"We think we can get him in really good physical shape and his best footy is in front of him too."
Scott said after North's best and fairest count last month that the recruitment of Waite and Higgins had not been a quick fix aimed at taking the Roos to a premiership.
He reiterated that point again on Wednesday.
"These decisions haven't been made in haste. We've been looking at these two players for 12 months, and they would have fit in with our list management strategy regardless of where we finished," Scott said.
"We are not putting pressure on them to take us to the next level. We feel they'll complement what we already have.
"Our strategy is fairly clear. We want to improve our list each year, while securing our future and taking our early draft picks.
"We go to the draft with three early picks again (No. 16, 25 and 36), so we are in a really strong position in the draft and we had a good trade and free agency period."
