NORTH Melbourne put in an unconvincing display against Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night and coach Brad Scott admitted his players' minds were already on next week's finals series before a ball was bounced.

The Kangaroos were widely tipped to record a percentage-boosting victory against the AFL's bottom side as they tried to sneak past Fremantle and into seventh position on the ladder.

Instead, North battled its way to a modest 28-point victory at Skoda Stadium, against a side it annihilated by 129 points back in round two this year.

But Scott was prepared to forgive his troops as they gear up for their first finals appearance since 2008.

"The way we finished off the game, with all due respect to the opposition, was clearly with next week in mind," Scott said afterwards.

"We haven’t been worried about the scenarios and permutations of where we might play next week in the finals so percentage, to be honest, was the last thing on our minds.
 
"It was making sure our players go into next week in good shape regardless of the venue.
 
"It certainly appears to me when (GWS) plays (its) most experienced side for the year in their last game, you have the emotional high of some experienced players playing their last game.
 
"It was their last game at Skoda Stadium for the year. We knew we were potentially walking into a bit of an ambush."

The Kangaroos had some good news on the injury front, with Scott extremely confident Daniel Wells (calf) and Nathan Grima (hamstring) would return next week.

Scott said Wells had been close to a comeback against the Giants before it was decided to rest him for a third straight game.

"We look forward to getting some inclusions back into our side next week," Scott said.
 
"We think Daniel Wells and Nathan Grima will both be available.

"Wells was close. Medically he was probably fit to play but we didn’t think he trained enough so it would have been disastrous to go into this game and reinjure himself.
 
"We’ve taken every precaution there and we think he’ll be right to go barring a mishap.
 
"Our focus was certainly getting our list in good shape physically and mentally getting into a good space ready to play next week."

Irrespective of Saturday night's performance, Scott was thrilled the club had achieved its pre-season goal of getting back into the finals for the first time in four years.
 
"It’s a fantastic achievement for us as a footy club to be back in September," he said.
 
"Our supporters should be really excited about going into another finals series.
 
"We’ve won 11 out of our last 13 games, so we’re going in in pretty good shape."

James Dampney covers AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD