As far as Adam Simpson is concerned, West Coast will be taking on the team sitting fourth on the ladder when the defending premiers host North Melbourne on Saturday.

The Kangaroos (7-10) currently sit in 13th spot on the AFL table, meaning their finals hopes barely have a pulse.

But Simpson has thrown out the season-long ladder and is instead focusing on form over the past eight weeks, where the Kangaroos have been one of the best teams in the competition.

North Melbourne have won five of their past eight games, with four of those wins coming under caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw.

Although the Kangaroos have lost their past two games, they were tight defeats to Essendon (five points) and Brisbane (12 points).

Only three teams have a better record than the Kangaroos over the past eight weeks, with Brisbane, West Coast, and Essendon all posting 6-2 records over that period.

“It’s interesting isn’t it, the ladder positions don’t reflect teams at the moment,” Simpson said.

“We looked at the ladder of where (North Melbourne) would be since Shaw took over, and they’re fourth.

“The distinct changes in some of the ways they approach the game – they start really well, they’re very combative, and they’ve got belief.

“They’ve been in every game they’ve played in for the last seven weeks, and we don’t think it’s going to be much different this weekend.”

West Coast will again be without skipper Shannon Hurn (calf), but Jeremy McGovern was able to recover from the ankle injury he sustained in last week’s 13-point win over Melbourne.

Premiership defender Will Schofield comes in for the axed Tom Cole.

North Melbourne have lost Scott Thompson after the veteran defender required surgery on a ruptured testicle, while Kayne Turner (rested) and Nathan Hrovat (dropped) also go out of the side.

Taylor Garner, Luke Davies-Uniacke, and Paul Ahern were all handed recalls.

The Kangaroos were level with Brisbane last week at the Gabba before an erroneous free kick with just over a minute to go helped the Lions kick away to victory.

The spirit North Melbourne have displayed under Shaw has been widely praised, with the 37-year-old’s chances of landing the head coach role full-time firming by the week.

But to make the finals this year, North Melbourne will need to win their remaining five games, and rely on other results going their way.

Third-placed West Coast (12-5) are just percentage adrift of the second-placed Lions, with the race for top-four spots heating up.