North Melbourne coach Brad Scott erred in bringing in young players too early

NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott admitted he made a mistake by exposing unprepared recruits for assignments in Sydney and Perth.

NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott admitted he made a mistake by exposing unprepared recruits in intimidating away assignments in Sydney and Perth.

Scott said it happened as he tried to get the right balance of youth and experience into the team in the first half of the season.

"I probably erred a little in bringing in some young players who probably weren't quite ready for the intensity of AFL footy,'' he said.

"Particularly in the cauldrons of the SCG against Sydney and Patersons Stadium against West Coast. Probably exposed a few young players a bit too early. But they were minor things and certainly not the reasons we lost those games.

"I think it (recent improvement) is more a hallmark of a learning experience list. At the start of this year, we were still ranked 15th in experience in the competition. When you have that level of inexperience, you're probably going to get some inconsistencies.

"We've just got to keep improving as a group, but we've got to keep bringing young players through because we talked about not being able to rely on (Drew) Petrie, (Daniel) Wells and (Brent) Harvey for too much longer.

"They've been terrific for us this year as they have been for the last two or three, but we need to bring some players through to support them.''

The Kangaroos' season teetered on the brink, winning only two of seven games leading into their bye in round 11.

But they're back in finals contention after wins against Gold Coast, Adelaide and St Kilda.

"It just comes back to hard work, really. We focused on a few things that we really needed to pick up on and we certainly practised those things pretty hard,'' Scott said on SEN.

"But, to be honest, all it does is highlight to our players what a fine line this season is.

"We had disappointing losses against the Bulldogs and we got overrun by Port Adelaide in a pretty horrendous result for us, being 30 points up with 10 minutes to go.

"The reality is if we won those two games, we'd be sitting 9-5 and people would be talking us up more than they should.''

And Scott's 3-0 coaching record since announcing his engagement hasn't been lost on his new family.

"My future mother-in-law reminded me of that at the weekend. And suggested I should've done it two and half years ago,'' he said.