NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott described his team's 62-point win over Richmond on Saturday as its most complete performance of the season, admitting he had to struggled to find any weaknesses.

As they have done for much of the season, the Roos jumped out to an early lead against the Tigers, riding an eight-goal-to-none second quarter to lead by 46 points at half-time.

But where they let big leads slip against Geelong in round two and Adelaide in round nine, the Roos never gave the Tigers a sniff.

North kept Richmond to just two goals in the third term and allowed them just three more majors late in the final quarter.

"My overwhelming feeling as the siren went is 'That's certainly our most complete performance'," Scott said after the game.

"I don't think we had a weakness today, the boys combined really well.

"Our attack on the contest was really good and the way we wanted to play, we pretty much executed. We executed it the best we've done it all year."

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of North's victory was its defensive pressure.

It started with Lachlan Hansen as a loose man in defence who was able to starve Jack Riewoldt and the other Tiger forwards of opportunities.

Scott said the Roos had been working really hard on their defensive pressure recently and was pleased his players had received some reward for their efforts.

The coach paid special tribute to Brent Harvey's ability to cover Lindsay Thomas' absence in North's attack against the Tigers.

"I was a bit concerned going into the game losing Lindsay Thomas, because he's clearly our best forward-pressure player," Scott said.

"But it just goes to show, you can play 350-plus games, but the guy who led us in defensive pressure in our forward half today was Brent Harvey. That set the tone for us.

"His chase on Matt White, who's probably one of the quickest players in the competition, was outstanding.

"It just goes to show that when the leaders are doing it, the rest pretty much follow."

Scott put North's defensive turnaround down to improved concentration, saying his team had not been easy to score against earlier this season, just easy to score against in periods during games.

"It comes down to concentration, it comes (down) to execution of the way we want to play and being really organised," Scott said.

"It's why I was pleased today, that regardless of the circumstances, (and) circumstances changed regularly throughout that game, we adapted really well to it."

North's win improved its record to 6-8 and took it to ninth on the ladder, although it will likely slip to 10th by the end of the round behind the winner of the West Coast-Adelaide clash.

Asked whether North was capable of playing finals, Scott said if they got there despite their tough draw, they would hit September in good form.

"We're certainly going to find out, because we play Adelaide and Brisbane away from home, we play Hawthorn, Geelong, we play Collingwood," Scott said.

"If we get there, we feel we're going to be going in with some pretty good form if we can beat all those sides.

"There are going to be some huge challenges put in front of us.

"If we stand up to those and win them, we'll be worthy finals contenders."

Nick Bowen is a reporter with AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick