Fremantle senior coach Ross Lyon believes Sunday’s opponents North Melbourne are far better than their ladder position of 13th suggests, calling Brad Scott’s side elite at its best.

The Kangaroos have put their fans through a rollercoaster ride of thrilling finishes this season, and more often than not they’ve fallen on the wrong side of the ledger.

North blew a big half-time lead against second-placed Geelong in round 2 to lose after a Jimmy Bartel goal near the siren.

In round 5, the Roos lost a pulsating match to ladder-leading Hawthorn that they had led deep into the final term.

There was further heartbreak in round 8, when West Coast’s Nic Naitanui leaped over a big pack to take a sensational mark and convert the match-winning goal after the siren.

The following round, Scott watched in bewilderment as his team threw away a 42 point three-quarter-time lead to lose to struggling Adelaide, who kicked a goal with seconds left to take the four points.

Lyon said North had repeatedly shown this season that it was good enough to match it with the best sides in the AFL.

“Their best has been elite,” he said on 6PR’s Sports Today.

“They’ve only had one disappointing game by their standards, which was the Gold Coast game.

“Up until then, they’d played the elite teams of the competition and headed them and been in close games.

“As a young group, I think they’re right on track… we understand what’s coming over, it’s going to be quite difficult to get the points.”

Lyon lauded the ability of Roos’ small forward Lindsay Thomas, who leads the Coleman Medal race after 12 rounds with 35 goals.

“He’s unique and we really rate him highly,” Lyon said.

The Freo coach said that who would play on Thomas depended on how close to goal North played the goal-sneak.

“It will be one of (Garrick) Ibbotson or (Lee) Spurr, and sometimes Michael Johnson takes those guys and can get it to ground and go.”