Scott urges 0-4 Roos to keep the faith

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has implored his players to keep the faith after falling to a 0-4 start to the AFL season.

The Kangaroos fought hard against the Western Bulldogs in the inaugural Good Friday game at Etihad Stadium, and would have stolen victory if Lindsay Thomas had of kicked truly in the dying seconds of the game.

Playing in his 200th game, Thomas couldn’t convert from 50m out and the Kangaroos went down 12.17 (89) to 12.14 (86).

Much like their one-point loss to Geelong in round two, the Roos were far from disgraced against a more polished opponent.

But it counted for nought in the end, with North left winless after four rounds, for the first time since 2011.

It’s little surprise considering the rebuild the Roos are undertaking, having lost more than 1500 games of experience by moving on Brent Harvey and several other veterans.

But in his eighth year as Kangaroos coach, Scott admits it will take a concerted effort to keep up morale both inside and outside the club.

“The fact is that you’re nought wins,” he said.

“The challenge is for us to keep ourselves together and not drop our bundle.

“Hopefully all of our fans can see what we’re doing and they can see a genuinely competitive effort each week.

“But I think everyone’s patience will be tested if we keep falling short after a really good effort.”

Down by 10 points late in the game, skipper Jack Ziebell’s crumbing goal put the Kangaroos within striking distance.

They continued to press their case but lost momentum when Scott Thompson was pinged for a contentious deliberate out-of-bounds call.

Scott admitted the ruling – as well as a questionable third-man up deliberation earlier in the game – had been cause for frustration in the Kangaroos’ coaching box.

“You’re four points down, you’re trying to win a game – we’re not trying to hit it out of bounds,” he said.

“That’s just where a bit of game understanding comes in.

“But the umpires have communicated to us that if the players are in doubt, they’ll pay it, so that’s a fairly negative bias there in terms of where we sit.”

Scott was reluctant however to dwell on the umpiring, saying the Kangaroos’ lack of poise had cost them the game.

“The framework’s there but we’ve got to add some polish,” he said.

“We’ve got the capacity to do that, both with improving the skill level of the current group and probably adding to that in time as well.”