NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott has admitted his side is unable to match it with the elite teams in the competition, a point emphasised by a season-ending 65-point loss to St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
The Kangaroos let slip a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter, with the Saints coming back with five straight goals to snatch back the ascendency heading in to the major break.
It was a forthright and honest Scott who spoke post-match about where his club needs to be to consistently challenge the top eight sides.
"It’s these games that you play for, it’s these games you're in the competition for and at the moment we’re not holding our end up," Scott said.
"Man for man [St Kilda] competed harder for longer - we were able to do it in fits and spurts but we're not able to do it against those really good sides for long enough.
"Clearly when the intensity goes up it exposes us a little bit there - it's good because some glaring deficiencies get opened up when the heat's really on so we’ll address those."
A flurry of goals from the Saints at the start of the third quarter, kick-started by small forward Stephen Milne, all but spelled the end for the Kangaroos' finals hopes, but Scott refused to blame his defence for allowing Milne and Saints captain Nick Riewoldt to get off the leash.
"Riewoldt's a superstar for a reason, and sometimes defenders make decisions to come off their direct opponents and I thought Milne and Schneider looked dangerous at ground level [for much of the night]," he said.
"I think our defence has been pretty solid for most of the year, so it's not just our defence we've got to look at it, it's all areas."
Scott has blooded young trio Kieran Harper (13 games), Shaun Atley (15) and Aaron Mullett (2) among others this year, but he says the improvement must come from the underbelly.
"We’ve certainly improved from last year, but the competition doesn't wait for anyone," he said.
"The ladder position that we occupy at the moment is reflective of where we're at, nothing to do with talent - but just to do with constant improvement.
"We now have a nucleus of players that need to take the next step and at the moment some have, some haven't, so time will tell whether the others will step up."
North Melbourne is likely to count the cost from the St Kilda clash, after midfielders Levi Greenwood and Jack Ziebell were placed on report for separate incidents.
Greenwood was booked for rough conduct on David Armitage, while Ziebell may face some time on the sidelines after clattering into Riewoldt.
The North Melbourne coach questioned the worth of umpires making reports on the spot, suggesting the power should be left to the Match Review Panel.
"The whole reporting on the day of the game just needs to be thrown in the bin because it's a complete waste of time, the Match Review Panel deals with that, the video review deals with that," he said.
"And we've seen instances this year where umpires make mistakes, the Match Review Panel throw it out but you still get a free kick paid against you.
"We need to make umpires' jobs easier, much easier, not harder."
Scott was clearly not enamoured with the effort of some of his players, but said some redemption could come next week against Richmond.
"We know we've got a lot of hard work to do," he said.
"We’ve got a really important game next week to prove to ourselves and to our supporters that that effort is not totally reflective of where we are at as a side, because at the moment we're just getting a little bit beaten up by better sides."
