NORTH Melbourne coach Dean Laidley believes his team is better than the one that finished third and played off in a preliminary final against Port Adelaide last year – regardless of what happens for the rest of this season.

Speaking in his post-match media conference after his side's 51-point win over Carlton at Telstra Dome on Sunday, Laidley was adamant his charges were more advanced than the one that was one match away from playing in a grand final in 2007. 

"Yeah I do [think we are a better team this year]," Laidley said.

"Whatever happens between now and the end of the year, we can put our hand over our heart and say: 'We're going to play in September, after today'.

“I just look at the young players that we've brought in over the last two years and we're really heading in the right direction.

"If you asked any of our supporters that – they would truly believe that, so regardless of [what happens for the rest of 2008], for these guys now to play in a finals series is going to be a wonderful opportunity for them."

Laidley said his team's comprehensive win over Carlton was "in patches" as good as it has played this season.

"We were pretty sloppy in the first quarter to allow Carlton to kick some pretty easy goals and the way we turned over the footy – we haven't done that for awhile," he said.

"After we got together at quarter-time, we reset and I thought we were pretty good.

"We don't rely on a Fevola-type to kick a bagful of goals and if we can share the workload and have a good solid structure down there, which we've been able to have for most of the day, it's good."

Laidley is now looking forward to his team taking on ladder leader Geelong next Sunday at Skilled Stadium.

"It'll be great for some of our guys to play against Geelong – it's a wonderful opportunity," Laidley said.

"They've got a lot of talent; they're mature, very slick and they've probably had four of their best players on the sideline last night and they'll probably come back in this week.

"But again, we'll recover and front up and send them out there and have a shot at it and I think our supporters will really look forward to going along and having a look.

"Our record has been okay down at Skilled Stadium, but we're just looking forward to it."

Behind Geelong, North Melbourne is now the second most in-form side in the competition, having won six in a row and seven of its past eight, yet Laidley said it was not up to him to consider rating his team the next best after the Cats.

"That's not my job to rate my team. My job's to coach my team and I try and do that to the best of my ability," Laidley said.