North Melbourne top of the table? Guess what? No one cares!

Can we write off Gold Coast yet?

Another strong win tonight by North against the Suns. What really impresses me about North this year is the "no-nonsense" approach by their coach Brad Scott - last week after they went 4-0 he stated this "guarantees nothing" and indicates he clearly isn't getting wrapped up in the early success. Greater things await down the track. I think North are in a similar situation to Geelong back in 2007...a solid team on the rise.

Great article. I have been saying this for ages. North Melbourne are a good team and deserve to be where they are. So many people were surprised last year when North knocked Richmond out of the finals, but the reality was North were a far better side, who had a far tougher fixture than Richmond, who played Carlton and Essendon twice. Richmond were chair lifted into 5th by an unfair fixture, but when they faced a club worthy of playing finals they got found wanting, and their so called stars went missing. I had North in my top four for this year while I didn't even have Richmond in my eight. The media would love to see Richmond in the eight as they are big four club with arrogant wealthy supporters from the leafy eastern suburbs. North are a battling working class club who have achieved success of the smell of an oily rag. Despite their wealthy supporter base who pump huge amounts of money into the club, Richmond have done stuff all since 1980. North have won premierships while they trained in squalid conditions. They have done it the hard way. The so called experts keep expecting North to fall down the ladder while they never do, while at the same time they scratch their heads when their darling club Richmond completes a memorable threepeat of embarrassing elimination final losses. The icing on the cake was the loss to Carlton, who finished ninth, and only got to play finals because Essendon were disqualified.

We don't care who cares - we'll just keep winning.

There very much is asterisks when you are talking about projecting those 4 wins out to what will happen the rest of the season. If you are going to cite Clarkson, you should also mention the fact that he pointed out that the Hawks can not continue to rely on luck, it will turn eventually.

You can only play who the draw dictates, that is true, however, you can control how much stock you put into those wins so far. North could very easily be 2-2 right now, they escaped with the points in round 1 and got very lucky to beat Melbourne after blowing a 6 goal lead after the first quarter. They also allowed Melbourne to score 131 points in that match. How often does a team get the 4 points when giving up such a monster score? I'd bet hardly ever. At season start I would have said beating Freo was a good notch on the belt, but now? Not much different from a win over Brisbane or Carlton the way Freo's season has started. So yeah, while the Roos should be congratulated on being 4-0 at this point, there are still legitimate queries over their credentials.

North are also the highest scoring side - so far - however in comparison have had more scored against than the Swans or Crows. That Sydney might be rated higher seems to ignore that the foundation of their wins and % is easy wins over woeful Collingwood and Carlton. The Doggies are interesting - with wins over Freo, StK and Carl there could be those who suggest that's not an awful lot either however their defensive side of the game has been very good. Freo Rnd 1 compared to Freo Rnd 4 I suspect were very different beasts though - Rnd 4 Freo was a cornered beast fighting for survival. Presently North fans care - especially those with kids who have never seen their team on top of the ladder - so, this week was a week to buy the Monday paper. Beyond that - good to go a tad under the radar - you don't win the 'flag' in April/May but you can make it much easier to contest for the top 4. For now - the big news is the ordinary form of Collingwood and Richmond and that may be an even bigger story next week too.

So we don't start by identifying any team as a contender until Preliminary Final week? That is a long time in the future to make predictions, and it is not really a prediction by that time, it is a FACT.

So they need to do it again. Both of the above comments appear to be misguided. Michelle, how is 4th-8th okay when the point of the article is supposed to be about North's credentials as a contender to the flag? Wouldn't a 4th-8th place finish essentially mean they aren't to be taken seriously as a contender? Stephen, North have made the prelims the last two years, but they haven't reached the grand final. Hence my point they need to reach at least a preliminary final. Anything less than a preliminary final and they've failed, therefore they don't deserve to be taken seriously as a contender.

Too early to care about any team but your own.

I'd say he's probably writing off Gold Coast because while yes they've only lost one game, it was to the team in 14th, and the three games they've won were against 16th, 17th, and 18th. You'll forgive me for not applauding that effort. Personally I'd suggest that you wait and see how they go against better teams before using them as a smart aleck retort. As for North, I'm genuinely interested in them this year, but I wouldn't postulate that their current 4-0 record means too much as of yet, for reasons highlighted by Peppsy. If by round 14 they're still on top, that's when I'll start reassessing my premiership predictions.

I'm a Roos fan, and think for large patches of each game, North have been rubbish. What's pleasing is the newfound ability to turn things around when the going gets tough, and they are undefeated when there is plenty of room for improvement. That gives me hope.