North Melbourne coach Dean Laidley has bristled at suggestions the club would already be plotting a way to achieve the seemingly impossible and bring down Geelong next weekend.
A win over lowly Port Adelaide at the MCG tomorrow will lock in fourth place for the Kangaroos, earning them a double chance and a qualifying final crack at the Cats.
Geelong's win over North last round was the Kangaroos' only defeat in the past two months and the Cats also handed them a devastating 106-point defeat on the opening weekend of last year's finals series.
But Laidley said it would be foolish for him, the club's match committee or players to start thinking ahead towards a chance to again take on the reigning premiers.
"If we do well and we win the game on Saturday, ring me up on Saturday afternoon and I'll speak to you about the opposition," Laidley said today.
"I'll tell you right now, we don't talk about who we play or who we might play the following week until we win this game of footy.
"It's just a bit of a myth with the media guys that we start to talk about what may or may not occur.
"You just can't afford to do that in this competition otherwise you get your pants pulled down."
Laidley said he had addressed his players several times in the lead-up to tomorrow's game on the dangers of focussing on what could happen if they win, rather than on the task itself.
Meanwhile, the coach welcomed the return of marking forward Aaron Edwards for what will be his first AFL match since breaking his leg against Sydney at Telstra Dome in round six.
Edwards has spent the past three rounds regaining match fitness with North Ballarat in the VFL, hitting form last weekend.
"We thought he led up really well, his fitness was good and he finished his work with four goals, so he's a handy inclusion for us," Laidley said.
Fellow key forward Nathan Thompson is set to miss his third straight match with an ankle injury, but will hopefully be available for the first week of the finals.
But, with big men David Hale and Drew Petrie in form and ruckman Hale McIntosh having recently returned from injury, Laidley said there would be tight competition for spots.
"They all won't play in the same side, so the race is on," he said.
He added that with the injury problems experienced by Thompson, Edwards and McIntosh, they needed to demonstrate form and fitness.
"We've got guys back who have missed a lot of footy, so you wouldn't want to be taking too many of those guys into a finals campaign," he said.
"But having said that, Hamish played a game in the VFL and then he played last week and Aaron's played three games and they've been doing a hell of a lot of training, so a game or two under their belt is going to really see where they're at."
